| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by grahame at 09:54, 12th August 2025 |     |
That route does look good, to my untrained eye anyway.
EDIT removed daft suggestion
EDIT removed daft suggestion
Yes ... I would have preferred 10d which would have varied it at the south end crossing the K&A canal and the A361 and running in to the A350 a little south. As it is, the 90 degree corner just south of Bowerhill will/would be a 90 degree corner for "ever". I understand there are ecology / wildlife / heritage issues on the "d" rather than the "c" variant - but then there are also issues of that sort at the top end of the proposed route too, and in the absence of any other practical alternative they have been overcome.
The proposed route does sort out a myriad of other issues locally, and offer opportunities some of which are not popular or worrisome. And a fast route past Melksham for longer distance traffic, and improvements at Yarnbrook that are in the pipeline, is going to make Westbury all the gummier.
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by matth1j at 09:31, 12th August 2025 | |
That route does look good, to my untrained eye anyway.
EDIT removed daft suggestion
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by grahame at 09:28, 12th August 2025 | |
This is going to be the 'Bypass of the bypass', yes.? Provision for the Wilts and Berks Canal klaxon too.
Mark
Mark
Yes. A new bypass to replace the previous one which didn't / doesn't bypass the northern quarter of the town nor the village of Beanacre.
Provision IS included for the Wilts and Berks Canal to pass under to the extent that it will not be a blockage - the new bypass if built will be at a level well above where it crosses the course of the old canal and a culvert big enough for boats to be included. It is to be hoped / pushed at planning stage for the culvert to be big enough for towpath and cycles too.
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by Mark A at 09:21, 12th August 2025 | |
This is going to be the 'Bypass of the bypass', yes.? Provision for the Wilts and Berks Canal klaxon too.
Mark
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by grahame at 09:00, 12th August 2025 | |
As a picture paints a thousand words, 2 maps showing the proposed bypass route that's officially favoured - one as to how it passes Melksham and the other in the regional context.
Interestingly, drawing this map has brought me to the realisation that M4 to Devizes traffic would be to some extent sponged onto the A350 as well were it easier to get past Melksham.
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by grahame at 08:42, 12th August 2025 | |
... the capacity enhancement ... this involved the A350 road
Yep, which is going to be a big help in reducing the journey time to the McDonalds bottleneck in Melksham just down the road 
Options have been proposed previously for a Melksham bypass, but I don't know whether any work has actually been scheduled.
Traffic on the A350 - which runs south from the M4 past Chippenham and then past (and at McDonalds through) Melksham has an upwards growth trend.
* With all the extra development going on in Trowbridge, new residents with cars who are making longer distance journeys will use it to get to the M4
* With the good burgers of Bath keeping traffic way on down over the Clevedon Bridge (and I can understand why) the traditional A46 - A36 route from the M4 southwards is displaced with their encouragement to the A350
Improvements to the A350 around Chippenham such as dualling much more of it will result in it sponging in more traffic and, yes, the bottleneck at McDonalds will become even more of a pressure point.
Funding for an A350 Melksham Bypass is included in HMG's latest spending review as a possibility and not as a definite. Whole loads of options have been looked at - and seem to have come down to option 10c, which is (looking south) for a road that veers off the current A350 just south of Lacock and crosses the Avon and runs through open countryside crossing the course of the Wilts and Berks Canal to meet the A3102 Melksham to Calne Road not far from Melksham but outside the built up area. It then carries on through the countryside, headed south to the A365 Melksham to Devizes Road, before looping around Bowerhill between the current settlement and the canal to finish off heading west and joining the current A350 route between Melksham and the Kennet and Avon Canal.
Local opinion is not entirely supportive, nor entirely against. Many reasons, huge subject.
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by matth1j at 08:22, 12th August 2025 | |
... the capacity enhancement ... this involved the A350 road
Yep, which is going to be a big help in reducing the journey time to the McDonalds bottleneck in Melksham just down the road Options have been proposed previously for a Melksham bypass, but I don't know whether any work has actually been scheduled.
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by Mark A at 17:33, 11th August 2025 | |
Up to London the other week and saw the capacity enhancement just past Thingley - not unfortunately the doubling of Thingley to Trowbridge, this involved the A350 road, where work is in progress to use the passive provision for a second carriageway beneath the GWML to enable it to carry the northbound lanes of the newly dualled A350. Immediate flashbacks to that rail-orientated meeting that included pale DfT types with their persistent riffing on the need to 'Save taxpayers' money' at which two (women) taxpayers and now former users of rail travel, walked out.
In these times, as ever, it's useful to keep in mind the counterpoint when an official says 'There's no money'.
Mark
| Re: [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 16:46, 11th August 2025 | |
^ ^
: :
What he said.
| [otd] 11th August 2005 - Registration of "Save the Train" domain Posted by grahame at 16:27, 11th August 2025 | |
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk. (note - old URL is still http not https)
On 11th August 2005 I registered savethetrain.org.uk, looking at a project that lasted perhaps for a few months and here were are 20 years later. Things have move on - somewhat - but the project remains live and to this day we have serious issues with service reliability, with the service being very much on the sparse end of what's appropriate and works, and with connectivity within Melksham to other public transport being, frankly none-existent. BUT we are up from 26 trains timetable to call per week to 118 per week, now spread across all hours and all days of the week. Our platform has been lengthened to take three carriages rather than one, and the old single carriage train retired (it was getting too full to take any more passengers at peak times) and replaced by 2 or 3 carriage ones.
But there is still work to be done. What I wrote 8 years ago ...
February 2017 ...
The "Save the Train" campaign was created in 2005 at a time when the whole future of passenger trains calling at Melksham Station was in doubt. Services held on by a thread through to 2010, with a strong local campaign. Objectives were to establish a permanent, appropriate train for Melksham's station, the line through it, and the communities served. Steps towards that objective:
* to raise awareness of the issues (2005 to 2009)
* to evaluate what's an appropriate service (2009 to 2011)
* to work towards that appropriate service (gain) (2012 and 2013)
* to ensure that an appropriate service is retained (2013 onward)
Over the years, the group moved from being protesters to being partners, working with local and central government, businesses in the area served, train operators and the rest of the rail industry, other user and community groups. As we shifted from protest to partner, we formed the "TransWilts Community Rail Partnership". Initially TransWilts worked as a group working within the community, then with First Great Western (now GWR) support, adding Wiltshire Council and central government though a Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) grant. Once the service was up and running on a trial basis, TransWilts was able to join ACoRP (the Association of Community Rail Partnerhips) - a Department for Transport sponsored organisation to help put new life into local lines. And as the service became permanent in December 2016, the service has become "designated" with gives the partneship some further authority / input, in particlar allowing local variation of national standards and policy where that works for the towns served.
Passenger journey numbers to, from and through Melksham - that's the line section unique to the TransWilts - were about 18,000 per annum when we started and are now up to a quarter of a million. Train service is up from 2 each way per day to 9 each way per day, passenger journey numbers at Melksham Station up from 3,000 per annum to around 60,000 per annum. The original trains still run - but where they had 2 or 3 passengers they're now conveying up to 30, and some of the new trains are full and standing (but if you're a potential passenger, there's still room for a few more on board).
There's still campaining and collaboration work to do - modelling suggests that Melksham passenger journeys can rise 5 times more to around 300,000 per annum - and for that we need a longer platform (project underway), longer trains (also underway) and more of them. And we need to improve access to Melksham station away from the tracks, and get the town's bus service to connect with the train rather than ignoring it.
Yes - the campaign has been successful - but that very success tells us that we're not where we should be yet and need to keep working for more and longer trains - and indeed link them into other trains beyond Westbury to Salisbury, and to Southampton and the airport.
-- Update by Graham Ellis, February 2017
The "Save the Train" campaign was created in 2005 at a time when the whole future of passenger trains calling at Melksham Station was in doubt. Services held on by a thread through to 2010, with a strong local campaign. Objectives were to establish a permanent, appropriate train for Melksham's station, the line through it, and the communities served. Steps towards that objective:
* to raise awareness of the issues (2005 to 2009)
* to evaluate what's an appropriate service (2009 to 2011)
* to work towards that appropriate service (gain) (2012 and 2013)
* to ensure that an appropriate service is retained (2013 onward)
Over the years, the group moved from being protesters to being partners, working with local and central government, businesses in the area served, train operators and the rest of the rail industry, other user and community groups. As we shifted from protest to partner, we formed the "TransWilts Community Rail Partnership". Initially TransWilts worked as a group working within the community, then with First Great Western (now GWR) support, adding Wiltshire Council and central government though a Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) grant. Once the service was up and running on a trial basis, TransWilts was able to join ACoRP (the Association of Community Rail Partnerhips) - a Department for Transport sponsored organisation to help put new life into local lines. And as the service became permanent in December 2016, the service has become "designated" with gives the partneship some further authority / input, in particlar allowing local variation of national standards and policy where that works for the towns served.
Passenger journey numbers to, from and through Melksham - that's the line section unique to the TransWilts - were about 18,000 per annum when we started and are now up to a quarter of a million. Train service is up from 2 each way per day to 9 each way per day, passenger journey numbers at Melksham Station up from 3,000 per annum to around 60,000 per annum. The original trains still run - but where they had 2 or 3 passengers they're now conveying up to 30, and some of the new trains are full and standing (but if you're a potential passenger, there's still room for a few more on board).
There's still campaining and collaboration work to do - modelling suggests that Melksham passenger journeys can rise 5 times more to around 300,000 per annum - and for that we need a longer platform (project underway), longer trains (also underway) and more of them. And we need to improve access to Melksham station away from the tracks, and get the town's bus service to connect with the train rather than ignoring it.
Yes - the campaign has been successful - but that very success tells us that we're not where we should be yet and need to keep working for more and longer trains - and indeed link them into other trains beyond Westbury to Salisbury, and to Southampton and the airport.
-- Update by Graham Ellis, February 2017
... episode 2 to follow
