Great Western Coffee Shop Forum - AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting) and guest speaker Mark Hopwood, 16.10.2021, and petition to save direct Bristol to Waterloo service, meeting 20.10.2021

Dear Coffee Shop Forum Member,

1. You are cordially invited to the Annual General Meeting of the Great Western Coffee Ship Forum, to take place at the All Saints' Youth & Community Hall & All Saints' Church, Roman Place, Didcot, OX11 7ER at 14:30 (Coffee served beforehand) on Saturday, 16th October 2021, followed by an update from Mark Hopwood, Managing Director of Great Western Railway. The meeting will be a "hybrid" one and you are encouraged to join on Zoom should you prefer.  Meeting details are at http://www.passenger.chat/25530 . Zoom codes are additionally at the base of this email.

2. The Department for Transport has specified that the direct trains from Bristol, Keynsham, Bath, Bradford-on-Avon and Trowbridge to London (Waterloo) via Salisbury cease in December (2021). Please sign our government petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/598397 asking that they continue running pending consultation and effective ongoing provision. Further details at http://www.passenger.chat/25503 . A public meeting will take place near the station in Trowbridge at 19:00 on Wednesday 20th October at 19:00 with representatives from the Department for Transport and from South Western Railway in attendance. http://www.passenger.chat/bri-wat_20211020.pdf for details.  Also on Zoom - codes at http://www.passenger.chat/25522 and additionally at the base of this email.

3. This email is sent to you as a registered member of the Great Western Coffee Shop forum. From our forum agreement and constitution at http://www.passenger.chat/1761 -  "The board owners may choose to email you very occasional news updates concerning the board and / or main subjects covered, but it's not anticipated that we'll do this more than a handful of times every year."  The forum has been running many years and whilst we have many long-standing members, we also have some who have not visited in a while.  If you are one of those, we would love to see you again; if you would like to de-register, though, please let me know.

I hope to see you on Saturday, next Wednesday, or on the forum. Our membership is our strength - thank you for being a Coffee Shop member. Please share our details with friends and colleagues too. We are, as the saying goes, "open all hours".

And finally, a big thank you to the team of admins and moderators who keep the forum up and running.  Quite simply, without them, and without you, we would not have a forum.

Graham

Graham Ellis - graham@wellho.net
01225 708225 or 0797 4 925 928
48, Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY
* Webmaster at Coffee Shop forum
* Melksham Town Councillor for South Ward
* Vice Chair Melksham Transport User Group

(Zoom codes mentioned in email are to be found on individual threads here and are not included in this record email)