Lee Fletcher, one of our founding members and so much of an inspiration behind public transport campaigning, has stepped down form both the the Heart of Wessex Bus Franchising Team and the Wiltshire and Somerset Electric Bus Partnership. Lee has taken a break in the past, but tells in widely circulated letters that this is a permanent departure. It's hard to emphasise enough how much difference Lee has made, and how deep his knowledge is and his enthusiasm has been for projects like these.  I would like to assure members that Lee's decision to step down comes from the direction these groups and the areas the work in is headed; Lee has wider interests in France too, and I would be very surprised if he dropped out there at the same time. Clearly none of us is getting younger, and we and our families slow down and need to focus more personally too.  If you read this, Lee, Thank you for all you have done. And I do look forward to catching up with you somewhere, sometime in the future.

Mass sustainable transport - primarily buses and trains are very much the way for coming decades in our region, and we are at a time of great change both in the technology we use and how we organise and run it.  And we are looking not only at where the trains and buses go (a feature) but also at how they interconnect to get people where they want to go, when they want to go (a beneit).  The "trick" if you like to call it that is to combine many requirements into single transit units for the efficiently of all - that's a co-operative and network approach.  We are very much at present at a time of developemnt and change - a time of great risk and great opportunity. It is time to look forward for us all, in a co-operstive partnership - governmental, operators, and people who travel to help us move toward the very bast travel and transport provision for the future.

TravelWatch SouthWest (TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website)) promotes the interests of public transport users in the South West of England. Our “South West” comprises the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Somerset and the unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, Bournemouth, Bristol, North Somerset, Plymouth, Poole, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, Torbay and Wiltshire.  TWSW acts as an advocate for passengers to lobby for the improvement of public transport in the region and works closely with local authorities, business organisations, partnerships and other stakeholder groups – with the dissolution of the former Rail Passengers Committee for Western England in July 2005, TWSW became the representative body for public transport users throughout the South West of England.

These days, I am one of around 10 directors of TravelWatch SouthWest. We have a general meeting in Taunton on 21st March 2025 (these meeting are held twice a year) and if you represent a group, a town, a route, a specialist interest you would be welcome to sign up and join us for the day.  Tickets (Free of charge) at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/travelwatch-southwest-spring-general-meeting-2025-tickets-1253238874209 . The TravelWatch Website is being updated at https://travelwatchsouthwest.org.uk - like so many things at the moment it's "all change" as we look forward to the future, updating to best fit us for the next 20 years.

I really hope to see lots of member groups in Taunton in three weeks,