At a time when it is becoming very clear that the balance of the UK population is towards older age groups, and at a time when the unsustainability of high pensions is clearly going to have a knock-on effect in years to come, why on earth can’t people work longer if they are fit and able to do so? Is retirement a right?

Will I get to retire in 35 years time? Or will it be 40 or 45? I am doubtful as to whether there will be any such thing as a state pension by then. There will be a smaller and smaller number of working age people having to support a larger and larger number of retired people (so-called baby-boomers) many of whom have in fact retired early and therefore will spend between about a quarter to a third of their lives in retirement. Is this really a useful way to spend a human life?

So let us help the aged by encouraging them to keep active and work (or else do what some of them already do and take on essential voluntary roles or impart their knowledge to younger people in their professions).

UPDATE: Sadly the ruling went against those that brought the case. Alas.

The journey time from Salisbury to Chippenham via Bath Spa (no direct services at all) is approx. 1h13m. BUT, returning on a Sunday (as many people might), it takes over 2 hours! Also changing via Bath Spa bit with a 40 minute wait. Thankfully you can kill 40 mins at Bath during the day but honestly, this is not even viable by my reckoning and at £17.50 return, even less so.

On a weekday journey time back from Chippenham to Salisbury is reduced to 1h22 but we know there is a direct line ready and able from Salisbury to Swindon via Melksham that could do the job is under an hour.

I have finally got the attention of more people from south Wilts to join the continued TransWilts Rail Campaign and you can read more in the latest newsletter of Salisbury Campaign for Better Transport.

I am really very disappointed that I still can’t confidently recommend anyone travel from south to north Wiltshire or vice versa by rail at the moment, unless it is your only mode of travel.

Out. Took the 10.40 to Bristol Temple Meads. Surely a ‘peak’ service considering many travelling rugby fans on route to Bath Spa, many shoppers and long-distance weekend travellers with luggage. We had a two-coach 158. The train did not empty at Salisbury greatly and although we were lucky to find seats many at this stage were filling the corridors and even the guard’s cab! I will say nothing of the suitcases. By Warminster there was no improvement and while the guard tried his best to shepherd people all the way down the corridor, people were left at the station. This was worse at both Westbury and Trowbridge, hardly [b]anyone[/b] was able to get on let alone claim reserved seats. There was a large amount of emptying at Bath Spa (predictable?) Now, I do not know if the abandoned passengers were a) given appropriate excuse and apology or b) if alternative transport was organised. All throughout, there was no announcement but I do not blame the guard for this and indeed many were complementary at the way he tried hard to make the best of a very bad situation. I would like to add that there were two 158 units sitting pretty at a siding at Westbury which many noticed and were not impressed by, regardless of the ‘technical’ reasons as to why these were not pressed into service.

Return. Arrived in time for the 20.22 back to Salisbury. There was no indication of the service on the departure board let alone which platform: odd. We thought it could be the mysterious service to Barnham advertised at 20.25 so went to the platform (11) and saw a two-coach 158 and assumed it must be this train. However the train sat at the platform, no lights, doors shut. Mysterious Barnham service disappeared and no announcement or advertisement for the 20.22 to Portsmouth. On finding a station guard he informed us that the train was cancelled but they chose not to advertise the fact – or indeed the service! There was no driver. Reason? None given. We were to wait for the 21.22. This meant that one of my travelling companions whose onward journey was to Winchester would not reach until 00.10 with a 45-minute wait at Southampton, a woman on her own at not the most pleasant station!!! This made her total ‘journey’ almost 4 hours as this service missed the appropriate connection at Southampton Central.

In the final analysis the 21.22 which was advertised for the same platform as the cancelled 20.22 service left from platform 1 – an alteration made at the last minute making us all run while the two empty driverless units were still sitting at platform 11.

These are two problems FGW CANNOT blame Network Rail for. They are ‘old’ problems that on a number of occasions they have claimed to improve: capacity and cancellations due to inappropriate resources.

I look forward to the excuses.

May I add I also heard many echoes of: “might as well drive next time.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/

If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us airline tickets

Mel Brooks

Quite so.

The question is: did other regular services suffer?

It is claimed that the new facilities will increase access to heritage collections and services for members of the public. However, have the planners thought about transport issues? To try and reach Chippenham from most of Wiltshire is a trial. There are few adequate bus services and a woeful, mistimed rail service on the TransWilts line which means that you have to add almost an hour to your journey to travel, say, from Salisbury to Chippenham (change at Bath) on the train (previously it was direct to Trowbridge). This is the letter I wrote to Salisbury Journal in response to the story of the new History Centre:

Dear Postbag,

I was very excited to read about the developments to move Wiltshire’s
archives to a new purpose-built centre in Chippenham (Journal, 31 May,
p. 5).

However, do those involved with this project realise how difficult it
is going to be to reach the centre from the south of the county by
public transport? Since First Great Western slashed services on the
TransWilts line (Salisbury-Swindon via Melksham) last December, you
have to now leave the county (change at Bath) and re-enter it, adding
more than 45 minutes to a journey which should take about 55 minutes.
There is currently one direct train a day from Salisbury to Chippenham
timed at 19.05, arriving 20.00!

I have written to First Great Western and Wiltshire County Council
about the poor service on the line and its implications, especially in
view of the current Unitary Bid and increasing traffic problems when
crossing the county. Unsatisfactory replies were given by both. Many
people who use services such as record offices want to travel by
public transport and so it is very disappointing that Wiltshire have
not been more joined-up in their thinking about the location of its
services and the access issues therein.

This story comes at a time when Network Rail have been criticised by the Prison Service for proposing to build an Engineering Yard right next to a Category A prison Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire. Prison officers are concerned about the noise irritation to the prisoners (many of whom are highly unstable) and the potential for them to cause serious problems if they were to get access to the yard. Presumably in a year or two they’ll all be employed to build it anyway.

Now why are they going building a new yard when several working yards such Eastleigh have recently closed? Eastleight Women’s Prison isn’t far.

Customers will see real benefits soon

I dread to think of the reality of the benefits FGW will offer. Not to travel by train perhaps? She also said that last year was an “enormous challenge” for the rail company. How hard is it to continue to run a rail service that was running relatively well and improving before they took it over?! It’s not a flippin’ space programme!

Q: Robert Key (Salisbury, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how the additional 1,000 new railway carriages recently announced will be allocated to operating companies; and if he will make a statement.

A: Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport)
It is too early to say where precisely the additional rolling stock will be used. The deployment of new rolling stock will be agreed with the industry following the publication of the High Level Output Specification and the long term rail strategy this summer, in accordance with the Periodic Review timetable set out in the Office of Rail Regulation’s advice to Ministers published in February 2007.

…So does that mean, seasonally adjusted, after the 1000 new carriages are distributed about the place we’ll have fewer trains than we started with?

This was another question about increasing bicycle capacity on trains:

Robert Key (Salisbury, Conservative)
Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the additional 1,000 railway carriages recently announced will be constructed to carry bicycles.To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the additional 1,000 railway carriages recently announced will be constructed to carry bicycles.

Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport)
A: It is too early to comment on the design of the additional rolling stock. Regrettably, there will always be constraints on the ability to accommodate non-folding bicycles at peak times, with the competing pressures on space from increasing passenger numbers.