21st March 2025 - TravelWatch SouthWest General meeting

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

Look forward to seeing you there!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Oh, no: not you as well? 

[ChrisB]

Yep, and me! & David Redgewell & most of the usual suspects I think. We're all quality, you know! (another Graham typo, that!)

If you have any doubt as to how relevant it is for you / whether you quality, please ask me and I can help / advise.

 

[Chris from Nailsea]

You are all indeed quality, and qualify: I simply don't have enough time to keep tidying up after grahame. 

I look forward to meeting you again in Taunton. 

Chris from Nailsea. 

[JayMac]

I'll be popping along. As I'm living in Taunton for most of the week these days its easy to get to compared to two trains from Templecombe via Exeter.

Finn is a public transport user too, but he'll keep Mum company while I attend.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'm rather disappointed that Finn won't be able to join us in Taunton on 11 October. 

He's already an 'honorary member' of the Coffee Shop forum, due to his ongoing contributions to our discussions, and I'm sure he would find the TravelWatch SouthWest meeting of interest.

Probably more so than his reaction to the Kelpies.



CfN

[Bryony]

TravelWatch has a great line-up for Friday. 

Mel Watson is the Keynote speaker.  Mel is known for being at the cutting edge of better transport delivery and has masses of experience including Lead on Public Transport in Cornwall; Transport Focus; Head of Bus Network Performance  at Transport for Greater Manchester. 
Dan Okey from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is taking about the scope network ambition and changes to the central region offer.
TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) member's friend Giles Fearnley is talking candidly about getting the best opportunities and meeting the challenges to passengers within the possible bus operating frameworks going forward.
We have been chasing the final speaker for a while and finally, Nigel Blackler is going to let us into Cornwall's secret and ask if new legislation will offer everyone this opportunity as something new.
The final sessions is a panel where the room considers how the new way of doing things will enable the voice of user experience and ensuring it's value is captured.

Booking for the in-person (with lunch) is available on Eventbrite.  Book to watch the session online as a broadcast only version will be possible from 9 pm tonight.

[grahame]

TravelWatch has a great line-up for Friday. 

Mel Watson is the Keynote speaker.  Mel is known for being at the cutting edge of better transport delivery and has masses of experience including Lead on Public Transport in Cornwall; Transport Focus; Head of Bus Network Performance  at Transport for Greater Manchester. 

Dan Okey from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is taking about the scope network ambition and changes to the central region offer.

TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) member's friend Giles Fearnley is talking candidly about getting the best opportunities and meeting the challenges to passengers within the possible bus operating frameworks going forward.

We have been chasing the final speaker for a while and finally, Nigel Blackler is going to let us into Cornwall's secret and ask if new legislation will offer everyone this opportunity as something new.
The final sessions is a panel where the room considers how the new way of doing things will enable the voice of user experience and ensuring it's value is captured.

Booking for the in-person (with lunch) is available on Eventbrite.  Book to watch the session online as a broadcast only version will be possible from 9 pm tonight.

Our "Coffee Shop" forum is unique - each member who is a Frequent Poster or more is, or has been, someone who takes an interest in public transport toward the South West from London, and furthermore takes that interest rather beyond a one off / casual approach.   And those are the sort of members who will really gain from coming along to TWSW on Friday - to listen, learn and interact with others who are likeminded and with similar interests over and above their normal conventional groupings.  I encourage you to sign up and come along.

TravelWatch SouthWest is also unique - we bring in top quality speakers to our twice a year general meetings.  These are key players in the public transport scene - it's to your benefit to hear from them somewhat deeper and closer than otherwise available, and it's to their benefit to help get their message and methods out to those who are knowdlegable movers, shakers, critical and logical friends. I encourage you to sign up to come along.

Both the Coffee Shop and TravelWatch SouthWest are run by teams of volunteers and are free to participants.  Perhaps not unique, but highly unusual. I am used receiving briefing / seminar invites at a significant cost and rarely take them up; these commercial setups have a different motivation and an income target for the organisers and the lecturers, for whom the audience is to be addressed far more than listened to.   TWSW and the CoffeeShop listen and inform in a far more balanced and symbiotic way.   We can't go to extent of offering free travel to the event, though we at TWSW do provide teas, coffees and even a light buffet, but that's out of practicality on a day out and we would be concerned if people came along for the catering.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I have booked my place, through 'Eventbrite', and I noted that their website suggested 'not many more seats available'.

Please do book now, if you are able to attend - I look forward to meeting you in Taunton on Friday.   

By the way: if there are any attendees with mobility issues, just for example, please make yourselves apparent to me at Taunton station and I'll be happy to assist you towards the venue.

Chris from Nailsea. 

[ChrisB]

That'll be me in my wheelchair - I'm hoping Bryony has organised me an accessible taxi both ways - too far to push myself....

[JayMac]

Should anyone require assistance getting from the station exit to the TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) location, I'd be happy to offer a ferry service with my car.

Drop us a PM with your train arrival details.

[Chris from Nailsea]

My train from Nailsea & Backwell at 9:06 gets me to Taunton at 9:56.

I'm happy to stand around on the platform there, offering help to any of our members who may require assistance on their way to the venue.  It's really not that far - we can arrange it!

To avoid any possible confusion with official railway staff, I'll choose to wear a yellow 'TransWilts' tee-shirt, rather than 'hi-viz'.  Please do wave me down if you need any assistance.

Chris from Nailsea. 

[ChrisB]

That'll be me in my wheelchair - I'm hoping Bryony has organised me an accessible taxi both ways - too far to push myself....

Bryony has sorted me out - her daughters have (been?) volunteered....thanks for the other offers!

[grahame]

The venue - the Firepool Digital Innovation Centre - is a new one and walkable for the majority. Leave the station from platform 2 (the one you'll normally arrive at if you come on a train heading for Exeter and beyond) and walk ahead / left past the new multistory car park and cross the road to the venue.

[Mark A]

Appropriately, the Innovation Centre is itself built on the site of an historic innovation - the first of the shortlived Grand Western Canal's lifts - the first to be put into commercial service in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

A watching brief was kept during the construction of the centre's foundations, and some structures from the lift were revealed. The lift itself had a chequered start to its life, and required modification before it would work.

The structure with its modifications survived long enough to be recorded on the OS^▸ (Ordnance Survey) 1:500 plan for Taunton.

Mark

https://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/44129

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=20.1&lat=51.02218&lon=-3.10196&layers=117746211&b=GoogleSat&o=100