HOURLY TRAIN SERVICE SAFE, MINISTER TELLS PASSENGERS Click!
Bath MP Don Foster - who I wrote a letter to about the cutsFrom the Bath Chronicle :: thisisbath.co.uk
BY COLETTE JACKSON
11:00 - 13 August 2005
Passengers power has helped ensure that an hourly train service in the Bath area will not be axed. The campaigners saw off a threat to halve the number of trains stopping at Keynsham and Oldfield Park stations.
The cuts were outlined in a review of the Great Western Rail Franchise, which is currently being put out to tender by the Strategic Rail Authority.
The proposals suggested Bath to Bristol trains, which stop at Keynsham and Oldfield Park, could be slashed from hourly to two-hourly.
But opponents said it was a ludicrous idea at a time when passengers numbers were rising.
Bath MP Don Foster raised the issue with the Government after local residents complained about the plan.
And he has now received a letter from the Department for Transport which states there is no intention to ditch the hourly service.
Mr Foster (Lib Dem) said: "The Government is now saying that regardless of what the Strategic Rail Authority might have been thinking, the Government has no intention of allowing the service frequency to be reduced.
"Clearly we have seen off that threat, and I am delighted."
In the letter to Mr Foster, Transport Minister Derek Twigg said the concerns about the possible loss of the hourly service may have arisen from a draft timetable document which the SRA supplied confidentially to local authorities.
"This showed a reduced service for Oldfield Park and Keynsham," said Mr Twigg.
But the minister said the Government intended to retain an hourly frequency at both stations, and that this was being made clear to bidders for the new franchise.
"These calls will be provided by trains running between Cardiff and Westbury or Weymouth, creating a regular direct service, linking Keynsham and Oldfield Park with Bath, Bristol and south Wales every hour," he added.
"There will also be additional hourly calls, giving two trains an hour, at both stations in the peak periods."
David Redgewell, right, of campaigning group Transport 2000, described the news as "a victory for passenger power".
He said: "It is a victory for the pressure that has been applied by groups like ours and the four unitary authorities for Greater Bristol.
"This means the Government is prepared to fund the trains in the Bristol area - it is prepared to put money into protecting the local train services."
