https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Severnside+Branch

 

Ho hum

 

I note "for its members". I am no longer an individual member - although the West Wiltshire Rail User Group has joined as a corporate / affiliated group member, and at last night's committee meeting of WWRUG I was nominated to attend.   I have been searching online for more details ... failed to find anything.  Are there any individual members on here - or officers of the branch - who can point me to a URL or data to confirm the invite scope?

 
Railfuture Severnside have an e-mail address:

Contact Railfuture Severnside
Email: severnside@railfuture.org.uk

You could try a direct approach to ask them.

CfN. 

 

I hate troubling them when the answer's probably online and I'm just overlooking it

 
I don't think the answer is online: I couldn't find anything, either. 

 
A new morning ... and from https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Events I read my answer:


Knew it had to be there somewhere 

 
My daughter has alerted me to this, from a sign on the railings at Nailsea & Backwell station:

 
Quick run down the A370 for me then

 

and

 
Ah well .. planned to take the cycle down (arrive 09:20), morning on the Strawberry Line, lunch at the cafe; here is the normal Saturday timetable:


As I won't be able to take the bike on the rail replacement bus, will probably time my journey to leave Melksham 2 hours later and arrive Yatton 3 hours later.   Pity; interesting date and venue combination choice, but it does make a point

 
As engineering works are planned weeks in advance,I think the onus is on the organiser to check that there are train services running.

 

yes ... and no ...

Firstly, meeting dates are often planned very well in advance.  I can tell you of West Wiltshire Transport User Group meetings next (2026) autumn - 16th September and 25th November - and I have not checked for engineering works.    They are Wednesday evenings so it's unlikely there will be be a problem, but engineering *could* be planned in the normal time frame - closer to the meeting.    The hall is booked in a pattern every 2nd Wednesday so a switch is not always easy.

Secondly, I have been involved with travel meetings where the very issues of getting to them are intentionally part of the experience.  This very group's AGM was held at Dilton Marsh as part of a campaign for better services there a number of year ago, and it's possible (though pure speculation on my part) that there is a campaign element on the accessibility front - setting it up to be difficult.

Thirdly, trains are not the only way to get to meetings, and it could be that they're running or not a ruling element in the organiser's decisions.  The Melksham Transport User Group meetings, for example, go ahead irrespective of all but the most dramatic of schedule changes.  Even though they are timed for any member who have arrived into town at 18:00, if that doesn't run there is no switch;  it is more important to avoid clashes that would happen if they moved from 2nd to 3rd Thursdays.

 
From a very personal point of view,and drifting off topic.

I presume most contributors on this forum are in the mature age group.

Not sure how many of them on here are in full time employment

I think that rail type meetings and rail talks should be held during day time hours.

Who wants to wait around on bus stops for a bus that may never arrive

on a wet cold winter dark day in December.

The car is an option for SOME of us,

but stories I hear that so many mature drivers don't drive night any more,

as they are unable to make out land marks even in their own area.

Not to mention if they have driven long distance,

as well as trying shield your eyes from the sun as it starts to set on the horizon.

Lets not even go down the brightness of the LED lights on modern day cars 

Thankfully TWSW meetings are day events 

Maybe a poll could be conducted to see how many would like have day time meetings.

 

A very useful drift ... I have split the topic to highlight the questions which are far more of general interest than personally just to you - new topic with much fuller answer at
https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=30902.0

As a "spoiler" ...

 
There is an update - speaker announced and now also available on Zoom


Zoom code on the Railfuture page at https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Severnside-Branch