Web campaign launched against threat to rail service
8:00am Saturday 13th October 2012 in News
A Westbury website has been set up to warn commuters about the risk of losing high-speed trains to London and gather support against the move.
www.westburytrainwatch.org.uk provides information about changes to the Great Western franchise which could threaten the service.
There is also a link to an online petition, and advice on how to contact the Department for Transport and franchise bidders and support the maintenance of existing services.
Town councillor David Jenkins, who set up the site with fellow councillor Gordon King and Ian Cunningham, want to send a strong message about the importance of the service.
“The fast train to London is an extremely important facility for the area, for business and the community in general,” he said.
“We are encouraging people to write in and show the government and the companies bidding for the franchise just how important this is.
“Our car parking is in a mess and no one knows what might happen with the bypass, we can’t afford to lose the trains.”
The website was set up after the councillors went to a meeting in Pewsey last week to discuss a similar threat there.
South West Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison is working with Devizes and Newbury MPs Claire Perry and Richard Benyon and plans to meet Minister for Transport Simon Burns to look at electrifying the line from Newbury to Westbury.
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moonrakin wurzel says...
3:33pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Having said that - a quick comparison between trunk train services in continental Europe shows that you can take a train journey closer to the time you actually wish to travel, pay around half the price and arrive in half the time.
As far as I'm concerned for the dozen or so journeys a year that I have to make to London - the train ticket price is competing with a taxi that gets me to where I want to go , when I want to go and usually quicker than can be achieved with the UK's "not joined up" public transport system.... That a capital intensive mass transit system is competing directly with "Mondeo man" tells you that somebody has got something very wrong.