trains « tehmina.org

Archive for the ‘trains’ Category

TravelWatch South West criticise FGW

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

A short article in the Avon Advertiser (p. 7, 4 July) headlined: “Service is just not the ticket – rail users” covers the response of TravelWatch South West to the National Passenger Survey.

The survey revealed a drop in passenger satisfaction with FGW performance on the ex-Wessex network. TravelWatch have said they want to see improvements in capacity, punctuality and reliability, ticket-buying facilities, handling of delays and ambiance of FGW rolling stock.

According to the survey, overall satisfaction dropped by 8% which is now 5% below average compared to other operators. The biggest changes was the way the operator handled delays, falling in satisfaction by 17%.

Of 31 factors, only 3 have gone up for ex-Wessex services – all are station and train staff related (up by 1-2%).

TravelWatch have said: “Our message to First Great Western is ‘We are watching, but will not be content with just waiting’. We expect the autumn survey results to show improvement on what is, so far, a poor reflection of this new franchise.”

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Robert Key wins FGW tickets

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

During yesterday’s Commons debate, Robert Key, MP (Cons) for Salisbury contributing the following:-

Oral Answers to Questions – Wales: Train Services (4 Jul 2007)

Robert Key: The fourth prize in a recent charity auction in my
constituency was a pair of First Great Western first class return
tickets to London. I do not think that I dare travel First Great
Western, but if the Minister would like them, I will gladly give them to him.

Did he accept??

Posted in fun, people, trains | No Comments »

Campaign Against New Beeching Report

Friday, June 29th, 2007

The Campaign Against New Beeching Report is headed by a fellow rail campaigner Lee Fletcher. He has been and continues to be one of the more active campaigners whose inspired project to propose an alternative plan for a railway in south west England, Gateway to the Future, I commented upon recently. This campaign, which is closely linked to Save the Train, More Train Less Strain and other campaigns (not just based in the south west) are potent symbols of the sea-change in attitude we will see towards public transport, particularly the railways. (more…)

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Service Cancelled: due to Glastonbury Festival?

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Last week and today, First Great Western organised some 60 extra services on its network to ferry festival-goers to and from Castle Cary for Glastonbury 2007.

The question is: did other regular services suffer?

Posted in madness, soapbox, trains | No Comments »

Congestion is not the only issue

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

This Guardian article about the ‘here-to-stay’ above-inflation rail fare increases raises some important issues about how the Government intend to tackle the capacity problems on the rail network in Britain. Statements about the way forward for the railways will come in the High Level Output Statement (HLOS). The two major projects for consideration are a revamp for Birmingham New Street and an updating of the ThamesLink route through London. It is also likely to include the plan for CrossRail. (more…)

Posted in soapbox, trains | 2 Comments »

Response from Department for Transport

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

On 12 June, I received the following response from Judith Shepherd of the DfT to my letter concerning the lack of services on the TransWilts (Salisbury – Westbury – Chippenham – Swindon) line. I was reliably informed that a large amount of the text of the letter was copied from DfT responses sent to concerned rail users last year before the actual cuts had been announced in the December 2006 timetable! It therefore, in large part, ignored the essence of my letter (for the desperate need for much better public transport links across Wiltshire), and did not even manage to respond with the most up-to-date standard statements on the issue. Graham Ellis of the Save the Train campaign has responded in detail to Ms Shepherd pointing out where the errors lie (take either sense of the word). We await a response. (more…)

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Gateway to the Future

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

Some wonderful people from the Save the Train campaign have come up with a feasible, achievable and brilliant solution to the current train transport problems in Wiltshire and the Greater Bristol Area. They call it Gateway to the Future and it speaks for itself.

Posted in enlightened, trains | No Comments »

Access to Archives?

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Wiltshire County Council and Swindon Borough Council are currently in the middle of moving various heritage services from around the county (mainly Trowbridge) topurpose-built facilities in Chippenham which will open some time after October 2007 as Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre. These services include the record office (archives), archaeology, museums service conservation (moved from Salisbury) and local studies library.

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: (more…)

Posted in history, madness, trains | 3 Comments »

18p extra on petrol fuel duty – it’s a snip for world-class rail

Thursday, May 24th, 2007

In the response to a recent e-petition against levels of Inheritance Tax, 10 Downing Street reasoned that if they did not have this tax in place, revenue for public spending would have to be found from elsewhere to the tune of £4 billion.

That would be like adding about 18p on petrol duty.

I’d pay it for a fantastic rail service and £4 billion ought to cover it.

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First Great Western (train operator) responds

Monday, May 21st, 2007

Here is the reply from Alison Forster, Managing Director of First Great Western to my letter of concern regarding the decimation of the services provided on the TransWilts line. The reply is dated 17 May 2007. A superb bit of verbal engineering in the second paragraph. And also note that although my concern was for the communication route that links south and north Wiltshire, it is addressed as a Melksham issue (I am Salisbury-based).

Dear Tehmina

Thank you for your email. I appreciate that you are disappointed with the current timetable for Melksham.

The new timetable was based on the one specified in the Greater Western franchise bid. During the bid process and subsequently we made over 200 changes to the original draft proposals many of which came as a direct result of customer feedback in our consultation. (more…)

Posted in people, trains | 1 Comment »