TweetThis 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 [...]
Response from Department for Transport
TweetOn 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 [...]
Gateway to the Future
TweetSome 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.
Access to Archives?
TweetWiltshire 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) [...]
A thought for today
TweetIn Mumbai, India, young Parsi boys attend the Dadar Athornan Madressa, a school where they receive secular education in addition to instruction in the arts of being a priest. In this gallery of images of contemporary Parsis, there is one of three of the boys in front of the school by a blackboard with a [...]
Long live Cheeserolling!
Tweet CRW_2945 Originally uploaded by mike warren A wonderful image of Gloucestershire cheeserolling taken by Mike Warren. During this fine annual Whitsun bank holiday tradition people from all over the world chase (roll) in pursuit of a rather large Gloucester cheeses down Coopers Hill, Gloucestershire. See more cheeserolling photos here. News stories seem more concerned [...]
18p extra on petrol fuel duty – it's a snip for world-class rail
TweetIn 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 [...]
First Great Western (train operator) responds
TweetHere 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 [...]
Wiltshire County Council (local transport authority) responds
TweetHere is the response to my letter of concern regarding the decimation of services on the TransWilts line from a representative of Wiltshire County Council, dated 15 May 2007. At least two other campaigners received the same reply (word for word) though from different people in the council. Dear Tehmina George Batten has asked me [...]
Campaigning for the TransWilts Line
TweetIn December 2006, many First Great Western services in the South West were cut. This was, of course, due to franchise agreements that passenger provision would be cut by well over 7000 seats by December 2007. The new May 2007 timetable does not re-instate the decimated services on the TransWilts line that connects north and [...]
