Chippenham - facilities, improvements, parking, events and incidents - merged posts

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

quarterly?....about right?

[grahame]

Note different venue for next week's Chippenham Rail User Group meeting.   "Paul" is Paul Johnson, Chair of TransWilts - contact details at https://www.transwilts.org/contact-us .

Dear All

Firstly a Happy New Year to you all.

Our next meeting is on Thursday 10th January at 7pm. Note the venue will be the Town Hall as we will be having a presentation and stakeholder consultation from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on the proposed enhancement scheme at Chippenham Station.

This is an important opportunity to see the station proposals and ask questions. I would encourage you and your Chippenham colleagues to attend  - it is a public meeting.

best regards

Paul

[grahame]

Chippenham Town Council advertising this on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/chipptowncouncil/photos/a.814520281974597/2071754949584451

Have your say on our local train station facilities by attending the TransWilts Chippenham Rail Users Group meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday 10th January at 7pm.

[grahame]

Call for volunteers from TransWilts via https://www.facebook.com/TransWilts/posts/1734956723271029

TransWilts
January 23 at 9:33 PM ·

👍👍✔✔🔔🔔✔✔🔔🔔✔✔🛎🛎🛎🛎
Fancy making a difference to your Wiltshire community!?.........
We are organising a survey over several days at Chippenham Station to provide evidence of the issues and to provide data on the usage at Chippenham including passenger destinations, transport used to the station and frequency of travel. We will supply questionnaires and brochures for the survey.
We're seeking volunteers who can be on a rota to attend at the station and count passengers at exits and entrances or issue/collect questionnaires. The larger volunteer force we have - the less work for each individual. We will be at the station from Mon 28th to Thu 31st Jan and Sat 2nd Feb (3 shifts a day). The station has several entrances and exits so to be effective we will need small teams working together.
Hopefully by participating you will enjoy meeting other volunteers, meeting staff and have some fun as well. Plus the lovely station cafe (Hearty Hare) will provide you with a free hot drink and sarnie and we will cover £10 parking fee.
If you would be happy to volunteer on at least one day or one shift please let me know. The more the merrier......👍👍🧐
Please contact me at Sophie@TransWilts.org ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅

There will also be a much smaller survey at Melksham the following week organised by the Melksham Rail User Group - separate post to follow.

[eXPassenger]

I note that they are covering the parking fee for a rail travel event.  No mention of a train fare.

[grahame]

I note that they are covering the parking fee for a rail travel event.  No mention of a train fare.

Travel arrangements are being / have been made with Great Western so that anyone travelling to assist by train will be given a letter of authority to travel; you will NOT be expected to pay GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) for travel on one of their trains to assist in the survey that's designed to help them.   I suspect that eyebrows might be raised if volunteers for really distant places sign up - best check with Sophie.

[grahame]

Late follow up ... factors such as poor weather, and Chippenham Station having four sets of barriers, made this a difficult survey to conducts, to the extent that the number of sessions was significantly reduced. I now understand (from a TransWilts director) that data was being gathered for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and only the briefest of summaries is available (as yet?).  I've lost the tweet that told me the number of passengers counted in total and number of survey completed - think it was approaching 200 and around 6,000.

I hope that those of us who froze our butts off to help gather the data will get a little more feedback than "commercial in confidence" at some point ... I feel if the data's being gathered for purely commercial purposes and not for wider information, then perhaps it should be gathered by people who are being paid commercially to gather it!

Edit to add - Thank you to the member who found the tweet for me ... 4 days, 6,721 entries and exits, 196 surveys, 13 great community rail volunteers. And it does include "A huge thank you everyone" 

[grahame]

From The Gazette and Herald

THE Grade II listed Chippenham railway arches are undergoing major repairs as part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan. Repairs to Brunel's railway arches will finish in spring.

The viaduct, where New Road meets Marshfield Road, is one of the town’s best-known landmarks and has been partly fenced while work is underway.

A spokesman from Network Rail said: “The natural deterioration of the Bath stonework and original brick construction is such that some parts of the structure are crumbling, which in some instances has required the closure of adjacent roads and footpaths. These works will address those areas that are most in need of repair.”


The work, which will be finish in spring, includes the removal of vegetation, the replacement or repair of damaged bricks and Bath stone, and the repair of cracks through the structure.

The nine-arch viaduct, which has limestone on the north side and brick on the south, was built in 1841 to carry Brunel’s Great Western Railway over the town.

[SandTEngineer]

...now, I wonder who let the vegetation grow to cause the problems in the first place.....

[Red Squirrel]

...as part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan...

Shouldn't this be covered by the Raliway Maintenance Plan? Wossat? Oh, I see...

[GBM]

"Not us guv. Blame our cutbacks on our paymaster" 

[TonyK]

For it to have lasted for over 170 years is testament to the strength of the design. I shall doff my stovepipe hat in deference. With modern methods of fixing it, it should be good for another 20 years or so. 

[grahame]

...now, I wonder who let the vegetation grow to cause the problems in the first place.....

Doesn't it rather depend on who let it get into the state such the vegetation could take hold

For it to have lasted for over 170 years is testament to the strength of the design. I shall doff my stovepipe hat in deference. With modern methods of fixing it, it should be good for another 20 years or so. 

Prior to 1948, it was the responsibility of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) who owned the track as well as the trains
from then until 1994, it was British Railways
for the next 8 years - to 2002, it was Railtrack
and in the recent past it has been Network Rail
As I understand it, some (but perhaps not enough) people and expertise has been passed down, so that each acquiring body in turn really shouldn't have been walking in with any doubt as to what they were taking on.

[SandTEngineer]

Having worked for three of those companies (no, not the first one ) I could tell you from frontline experience where it was allowed to go to pot, but I'll let you guess.....

[SandTEngineer]

Now then I wasn't aware of this (but might have missed it if we discussed it elsewhere):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/network-rail-vegetation-management-review-valuing-nature-a-railway-for-people-and-wildlife