| SAVE OUR BUS PRESS RELEASES PRESS
RELEASE - TUESDAY 3RD JUNE 2008 Speaking to the Romsey Advertiser, Nadine said "If it had not been for our campaign the first the people of Romsey would have known about the cuts to the service would have been when their bus did not turn up one morning because they tried to axe this service through stealth”. “HCC are supposed to have the responsibility to provide public services for which we all pay hefty Council Tax bills and "at every step of the way" HCC have put Stagecoach and SWT before their own residents.” The Save Our Bus Campaign set up the original Working Party but was later excluded because the other parties wanted Nadine to work under conditions which included "accepting that they were not going to reinstate the service and not speaking to the press about their meetings". “HCC have repeatedly claimed that our campaign was responsible for falling passenger numbers“ said Nadine. “but the numbers have fallen because the cutting of the original service meant those people who had been using it on a daily basis were excluded. Any potential new passengers were not going to commit to something that only had a 6 month life expectancy”. Nadine, whose background is in design and marketing, considered the advertising campaign run by HCC and Stagecoach a failure. She explained that “instead of targeting passengers who could use the services that were under threat, in order to save them, the advertising was aimed at day time off peak passengers and retired people who travel free on the service anyway. I think that shows the real level of commitment by the local authorities involved to the people of Romsey who relied on this service for their lively hood”. "This decision by Stagecoach is commercial but the decision by HCC not to provide assistance to the people of Romsey will further isolate Romsey. The Save Our Bus has campaigned tirelessly to save this service taking the campaign out onto the streets of Romsey and Winchester, visiting Downing Street and meeting with the Department of Transport but the reality is that Stagecoach and HCC have done everything they could to subvert the process and treated the people of Romsey with contempt. We will be asking Sandra Gidley for her views on this matter”. Concluding that she would continue the campaign for better public transport in Romsey, Nadine said “The Save Our Bus Campaign has been inundated with emails since this news broke, we need to keep this campaign going on behalf of local people. We know that other bus routes in Romsey are facing cut backs so this has just highlighted the need for ordinary people like me to stand up for local services and to put people before politics.” Former London Mayoral candidate, Matt O’Connor, who first broke the news of the cuts to the X66 service, has said that both he and Miss Taylor are launching a new political project in Hampshire later this year after the overwhelming support from this and other campaigns. PRESS
RELEASE - MONDAY 21ST APRIL 2008 Campaigners in Romsey are moving their Save Our Bus Campaign into top gear as another bus service in the town comes under threat. The 32/33 service that runs through Woodley and dovetails into the threatened X66 Romsey to Winchester service is now the subject of crisis talks. Nadine Taylor, of the Save Our Bus Campaign, which was set up to fight the axing of the X66 rail-link service, exclusively told The Romsey Advertiser that her group was now expanding to include the 32/33 Service which faces cuts to its day time service. Members of the Save Our Bus Campaign attended a meeting of the Test Valley Transport Forum, hosted by Hampshire County Council, on Friday 9th May after a last minute invitation from HCC when the campaign group announced they intended to come to the meeting and protest about the cuts to the X66 service. Nadine Taylor told the Romsey Advertiser that she was disappointed by the Forum when it was explained to her that they had "no influence over transport matters in the area or power when it came to decision making". Campaigners were allowed to attend the first 20 minutes of the meeting and put a series of questions to HCC, SWT and Stagecoach with regards to the X66 service, before being asked to leave. "I have since spoken to several members of the Forum and it appears that the X66 is not the only bus service threatened with cuts in Romsey. The 32/33 hopper bus which provides transport in and out of Romsey to the Cupernham and Woodley area now facing cuts to day-time buses." "I am outraged that the residents of this part of Romsey are facing yet more cuts. The proposed Abbotswood development would sit right next to this north-eastern part of Romsey. Not only are existing residents facing gridlock from the thousands of cars that will go down the Braishfield Road and through Woodley if the development is completed, but the very infrastructure we have in place for public transport is being cut back. Joined up thinking would surely indicate that instead of stripping away the limited public transport system we have in that area, we should preserve it to expand it to incorporate Abbotswood. If no realistic public transport system exists the new residents are not going to even entertain leaving their cars at home." Fellow campaigner Alan Bayley told the Romsey Advertiser that "Hampshire County Council were clearly shaken by our campaign and the level of public feeling about axing of the X66 service so I can fully understand why they did not want us to stay in a meeting that was discussing further cuts around the town. We do not accept though the bizarre claim that somehow our campaign to save the X66 services actually led to it’s cutting. The public are not fooled by this approach. I understand that all the tenders for the Romsey bus services are now back from the bus companies but the tender prices have risen by more than 20% while HCC’s budget stays the same which means there will be cuts to meet the budget. The bus subsidy budget has also been cut by £673,000 for the new current financial year.” “We all understand the need to balance the books. SWT and Stagecoach are commercial ventures, we don’t dispute that, but HCC must be seen to be working for the public. I challenge anyone who was at the Forum meeting to say they did not feel desperately uncomfortable when one of our campaigners gave an impassioned plea to the transport bosses to consider people like her in their decisions, people who had no other option but to use bus services and whose lives and work depended on them” Nadine Taylor said that she felt the people of Romsey had been treated appallingly in this process by HCC which is why instead of winding down her bus campaign she was taking on more passengers and would be opening it up not just to the threatened Woodley hopper bus, but to look at all the bus services coming in and out of Romsey so that public transport met the existing needs of the town before the town was swamped with further development. PRESS
RELEASE - TUESDAY 15th APRIL 2008 The Save Our Bus Campaign will be attending this meeting to demand answers to the questions we have been asking HCC about their miss-use of public money to advertise the NOT AT RISK X66 day-time services. HCC agreed at the public meeting in November last year to work with the Save Our Bus Campaign and Stagecoach to try and increase numbers on the morning and evening commuter services in a combined attempt to save them, we did not agree to pump money into the day-time services that were not under threat. With so many unanswered questions about the actions of HCC towards this service, the Transport Forum meeting on the 9th May is a public opportunity to get to the bottom of this latest decision by HCC which adds insult to injury to those commuters who have lost a vital travel to work service. For those who have managed to stick with the scaled down service they are still being dogged by late buses, buses that never turn up, buses that arrive 10 minutes ahead of schedule and do not wait at the bus stops and even more unbelievably buses that drive straight past queues of waving would-be paying customers! Please come along and support us - banners, placards will be available so we can add weight to our discontented voices. Stand up and demand some answers from HCC to Romsey's ever increasing public transport problem. If you can attend, please email us so we can get an idea of numbers and to ensure that all questions are covered. Thank you for your continuing support. THE
ROMSEY TRANSPORT FORUM Promote
an understanding of transport services in the area PRESS
RELEASE - TUESDAY 8th APRIL 2008 The Hampshire based founder of Fathers 4 Justice and candidate in the London Mayoral Elections on May 1st today slammed Hampshire County Council for increasing pollution in Winchester and Romsey and of misleading the public over the cuts to the Romsey Rail Link bus service which is threatened with closure in July. Matt O’Connor who lives in London during the week, but spends weekends with his family in Romsey and Winchester relies on the bus service to travel between the two. O‘Connor accused Cabinet Spokesman for the environment Mel Kendle of misrepresenting the facts about the axing of the rail link bus service. O’Connor, who was the first passenger to discover the service was to be axed last year and championed the service with his partner Nadine Taylor and the Save Our Bus campaign, said that Hampshire County Council should be held responsible for the following: Allowing the service to be axed in the first place. Adding to the increase in congestion in Winchester and the pressure on the Rail Station car park. ‘Where most councils are trying to reduce carbon emissions, HCC seems to want Winchester to trade up from it’s notorious claim of being the City with the worst carbon footprint in Britain by reducing Winchester to gridlock, make the car parks unusable and blasting a hole in the ozone over Hampshire that should see us start to enjoy the sort of weather they have in the South of France.’ Nadine Taylor, the Save Our Bus campaign manager, who has recently taken over the running of Fathers 4 Justice being the first woman to head up the dad’s campaign group, said she was absolutely staggered that HCC and Stagecoach were using taxpayers money to promote a bus service which is NOT at risk and that there was no advertising aimed at increasing the morning and evening services that face closure. Nadine told The Romsey Advertiser that after she read last week’s article, in which Mel Kendle said that "This has entailed a leaflet drop to all households along the route with discounts vouchers, free journey vouchers, press articles and information on Hantsweb." She started to ask around her estate. “I live yards from the bus route and I have never received any leaflets or discount vouchers through my door and it appeared nor had my neighbours. I immediately contacted Andrew Dyer of Stagecoach to ask where the leaflets had been distributed and he replied “it would appear that we have been let down by our delivery company”. It’s the kind of answer I have come to expect. I did find one person though further into Romsey who had had a leaflet and it was then that I discovered that the advertising to “save the rail-link service” was actually offering discounts AFTER 10.00am in the morning. Mel Kendle also said that "criticising efforts to encourage people to use the service is unhelpful”. I absolutely agree but this new working party is not encouraging people to use the service that they were asked to save, they are encouraging people to use a service that is not and never was at risk, and because of that I feel justified with my criticism.” "After last weeks Advertiser article I received loads of emails from former rail-link passengers saying they had all returned to their cars because there had been no concerted effort by HCC to try and save the service as promised, and they were not prepared to buy season tickets for a service that they just did not believe Stagecoach and SWT wanted to save. “At the public meeting in November nearly 200 people voted to set up a working party to save the threatened rail-link services and HCC publically agreed to be part of that. The public did not campaign to save the day time off-peak services that ARE NOT under threat. The County Council and Stagecoach then hijacked that working party. Stagecoach must be delighted that this scandalous misuse of taxpayers money is being used to promote their not-at-risk daytime services. I think the people of Romsey who used the rail-link service are owed an explanation from Mel Kendle. With bus services being axed across Hampshire because apparently there is no money to promote them it is staggering that this money has been found via the backdoor to promote a service that is not under threat.” “I am delighted that HCC staff are being encouraged to use the bus as part of the advertising campaign, but this still falls short of the original plan and commitment of HCC to help us save the morning and evening commuter services. I am planning to take this campaign to Perth in August where I will be demonstrating in a more direct way at the Stagecoach AGM and I encourage the residents of Romsey to demand an explanation about the miss-use of their money by HCC for Stagecoach advertising. My question remains the same: How can HCC justify supporting the axing of daily commuter passengers and fund advertising for once a week shoppers on bus passes and discount vouchers? PRESS
RELEASE - SAVE OUR BUS CAMPAIGN- TUESDAY 1st APRIL 2008 - (No
This is not an April Fool) Hampshire County Council’s decision to use thousands of pounds of taxpayers money to re-brand the old Romsey to Winchester rail-link bus service, that was used by regular daily commuters, as a ‘shopping trip’ bus to Winchester, demonstrates the contemptible way, South West Trains and Stagecoach have treated their passengers. Not only is the new advertising campaign a kick in the teeth to all those passengers who were using the service, the quality of the advertising is woefully inadequate and easily missed. Ever since last October when they tried pulling the rail link commuter service by stealth, they have bamboozled, cajoled and in one case threatened, both Romsey commuters and the Save Our Bus campaign. The Save Our Bus Campaign has demanded from HCC and Stagecoach detailed marketing information that shows why and how they believe that by marketing to retired people who want to pop into Winchester once a week shopping, they can increase revenue and passenger usage, when they have axed the daily commuters. Nadine Taylor from the Save Our Bus Campaign who works as a marketing consultant on national and international brands told The Romsey Advertiser that she could not see how a commercially focused company such as Stagecoach could justify cutting services and axing the revenue generated by daily passengers and replacing them with occasional weekly, probably even fortnightly passengers. “I can not see even with my basic maths how they are going to to increase profits in any shape or form. The numbers just do not add up, especially when you factor in that the majority of the weekly and fortnightly shoppers their advertising is aimed at use bus passes that give them free or heavily discounted travel, something that Stagecoach claimed back in October had an impact on their decision to cut the service. The other interesting factor in all this is that the shoppers that they are trying to encourage don’t travel at peak times so they are not using the 3 morning and evening services SWT are temporarily paying for so these services are being run into the ground because the commuters have left in droves after being forced off the bus”. “We offered to set up and run an effective, targeted marketing campaign to promote this service to Hampshire County Council, but they placed conditions on our involvement that would have gagged us from speaking out on behalf of Romsey. We could not agree to those conditions.” “We are now left with a stark reality – Romsey is becoming increasingly isolated, shops are being abandoned, people have taken to their cars in droves and yet we see that more than 3,500 new homes are planned in Romsey – a town with a dwindling public transport infrastructure. How long is it going to be before we bring Romsey to a stand still with cars, not long when you factor in the cars generated by the Abbotswood development. Surely we should be saving what public transport we have and improving it, that must be more cost effective than cutting it and then realising in 5 years time that we need to re-introduce it all again.”
Nadine said “Whilst we recognise the efforts of many people including MP Sandra Gidley to save the service and now see that Cllr Roy Perry has started campaigning, we are afraid he missed the bus months ago when the service was first cut and commuters abandoned the bus and went back top their cars. Since then, virtually nobody uses the commuter service. Not just because the service no longer caters for their needs but because it has become totally unreliable.” Those passengers who have clung onto the last few commuter services because they have no other means of transport are constantly being let down by Stagecoach. Bus drivers still drive straight past queues of people waiting at bus stops and those who do stop to pick up people are rude and complacent to passengers. Even on Tuesday morning of this week, after the meeting with the Department of Transport, which raised concerns over the deliberate running down of the service by providing unreliable buses, the 7.30am bus from Romsey attempted to drive past Matt O'Connor, London Mayoral Candidate and 3 other paying customers. Other passengers on the bus later revealed that the bus had earlier driven past another woman waiting at a bus stop and that this happens on a regular basis. Nadine questioned how Stagecoach and HCC can claim that they are providing accurate records of bus usage when on a regular basis numerous passengers are not even being picked up. “The figures provided by HCC and Stagecoach therefore can not be trusted and go to prove what we have been claiming all along that there is no concerted effort to save this service by Stagecoach, rather an attempt to prove such an unreliable service that those remaining commuter passengers are off the bus so Stagecoach can claim no one wants the additional buses.” Commenting on her meeting with Government over this issue Nadine said that “Every time we ask a question about this service we get a different answer and new information is reluctantly revealed. It was disclosed at the meeting yesterday that in the original tender for the SWT contract in the 1990's there was no instruction to provide the Rail-link service between Romsey and Winchester. Being a commercial company though it is unthinkable that Stagecoach and SWT provided this service out of the goodness of it heart for the people of Romsey, raising the question as to whether SWT and Stagecoach received money from the Government for this extra service in the beginning. No one at the meeting was able to answer this question but Tom Harris has asked his department to go right back to the beginning of the original tender to find out when and why the Rail-link bus was introduced so we are hopeful that if we keep the pressure on government and Stagecoach the truth will eventually come out. A national newspaper editor recently described me as a rotweiller when it came to things like this, which I took as a compliment, so rest assured I wont let go on this issue until we have got to the truth and Romsey has the bus service that it needs.”. PRESS
RELEASE - SAVE OUR BUS CAMPAIGN - FRIDAY 21st DECEMBER 2007 In a move to silence the Save Our Bus Campaign, Stagecoach, SWT and HCC took the astonishing decision last week to set up a "new" Working Party made up of themselves, 2 Hursley Councillors and a Planning Officer from TVBC. Nadine Taylor from the Save Our Bus Campaign was invited to attend what she was lead to believe was a meeting with the main 3 transport bosses ahead of her next Working Party Meeting to try and iron out a few of the problems surrounding the new X66 route. She was though presented with a newly formed Working Party that was not a fair and proportionate representation of the bus route. Not only were there no representatives from Romsey, but the new working party slapped a list of conditions on Nadine's membership of the new group. The Save Our Bus Campaign was told that they were not allowed to report back to anyone the full details of the working party meetings; they could NOT openly criticise Stagecoach; they could NOT look at alternative commercial ventures to replace the old rail-link buses; and Nadine was to DROP the campaigning and accept that the new timetable was the only option on the table. At the Public Meeting on the 1st November 2007, which had been organised by the Save Our Bus Campaign the public voted for a working party to look at all the issues surrounding the axing of the rail-link route and the options available to them to reinstate it. In an extraordinary move to silence the campaign group a select few of the original working party have attempted to set up a replacement working party where there is no opposition to Stagecoach. Nadine Taylor said "While we fully support the need for Stagecoach to publicise the new route, they should be doing this anyway. What we wanted was to look at ways we could increase passenger numbers and find ways we could reinstate the rail-link service. The only legitimate working party is the one voted for at the public meeting, the one that we set up and have facilitated. This latest move just illustrates the lengths Stagecoach will go to. We have a right to protest in this country and freedom of speech, just, and our campaign exercises that right. The whole essence of the working party was that there were opposing sides to the axing of the route and it was an opportunity for us all to sit round the table and discuss those views and find ways of working them through to a solution that at the end of the day benefited the passengers. Slapping conditions on us and selecting only supporters of Stagecoach onto a working party is outrageous and we will not be party to that." "This week we have seen even more problems on the revised service, so much so that passengers have been calling for Stagecoach to give up the entire route so we can get a new commercial operator to run the route properly. Passengers are absolutely disgusted with what is happening and the passengers are our main concern. SWT have paid for these extra buses and even they are not getting a return on their money because their buses have not been running and ultimately this will lead to those extra buses being run down and taken off the route which is what we expected all along." The Save Our Bus Campaign is therefore going to continue all the work that it has started and now plans to take its campaign to Europe as part of the EC Green Paper Towards A New Culture for Urban Mobility. Matt O'Connor from the campaign group said, "We were told that the 3 transport bosses did not want "warring" sides on the working party. This is not the middle east peace talks this is about the public wanting an integrated transport system that works, its about a bus. We are more than happy to re-engage with Stagecoach and SWT if they lift all the conditions and return to the original working party, but until that happens the campaign will push ahead and continue to look at all the options available to us and we will keep the public and press informed of everything we do". PRESS
RELEASE - SAVE OUR BUS CAMPAIGN - WEDNESDAY 12th DECEMBER 2007
PRESS RELEASE - SAVE OUR BUS - FRIDAY 7th DECEMBER 2007 Andrew Dyer, the Managing Director of Stagecoach, the company that ran the Romsey to Winchester rail link bus service launched an astonishing attack this week on campaigners for a ‘collapse’ in passenger numbers prior to the axing of the Romsey Rail Link bus service today Friday 7th December. Mr Dyer, who had previously criticised his own drivers at a public meeting in Romsey for failings in the service said that the high profile campaign would cause significant damage to passenger numbers because people would believe that all bus services would be affected. The news comes as negotiations with a locally based company for a replacement rail-link bus service fell through at the last minute amongst fears about a possible ‘bus war’ with Stagecoach who run buses on the same route and concerns about the up-front investment required to run the service. But campaigners have hit back accusing South West Trains and Stagecoach of acting like a ‘Banana Republic’ and corporate vandalism by stealth and treating the travelling public with contempt by failing to engage in any consultation over commercial alternatives. Said
campaigner Matt O’Connor, “First they blame the drivers,
then they blame campaigners whilst at the same time they have
introduced these cuts by stealth, forcing more passengers into
their cars. It makes a mockery of our so called ‘integrated
transport’ policy.” “We
set up a working party to investigate commercially viable options
for the rail link bus service but this has been torpedoed by both
SWT and Stagecoach failing to disclose the figures their decision
was based on or even turn up at meetings and discuss the options.
2 weeks ago I received a letter from Stagecoach Chief Exec Brian
Souter telling me he had asked SWT Boss Ian Dobbs to liaise with
me regarding the issues we had raised, yet when I called Mr Dobb's
office I was abbrasively cut short and told me Mr Dobbs would
call me back, I am still waiting for that call. In the meantime
Mr Dobbs has written to me basically telling me there is nothing
to discuss and the matter is closed. At our last meeting Mr Dyer
arrived just in time for the close of the meeting which just about
says it all. This kind of corporate bullying disgusts me and makes
me more determined than ever to continue this campaign and find
a workable solution." "What
this campaign has illustrated more than anything though is a public
commitment to public transport and that should be harnessed. The
campaign group has done a lot of work behind the scenes into the
financial viability of running this and other public transport
services around the town along with marketing ideas and in reality
if we are able to do this then so should local authorities and
companies like Stagecoach who have far more resources and responsibilities
for this then we have. This campaign has shown how the infrastructure
of our community is so finely balanced, if you take away a bus
you are taking away far more than a lift to work."
Protestors from the Save Our Bus campaign are to deliver a petition to No10 Downing Street on Thursday 22nd November. The group will travel on the it’s 'Santa Squad' battle bus. The move was announced on the day of it's first official protest and campaigners are saying that reports that the group had failed, flied in the face of reality given that campaigners had already successfully negotiated a compromise from South West Trains. Said Campaign Co-ordinator Nadine Taylor, "We are in the middle of a vigorous and dynamic campaign with four weeks to go and everything to play for." "We are not prepared to except anything other than the reinstatement of all services whilst the working party we have set up examines what we believe are bogus figures – figures which do not reflect the reality on the ground as anybody who went to the public meeting will testify – South West Trains didn’t have a clue about the numbers or the service customers received.” The Save Our Bus Campaign says that SWT have just announced a 15% increase in profits by cutting services and that it is investigating the franchise agreement and subsidies SWT receives, expressing concern about the lack of transparency in the financial arrangements between SWT and Hants County Council. The
campaign strategy includes: Said campaigners and Fathers 4 Justice frontman Matt O’Connor, “The campaign is picking up speed and shifting from 2nd gear into 4th and 5th. I wouldn’t want anyone to get hit by the speed of this campaign bus and South West Trains should not under estimate the resolve of everyone involved in this campaign.” “We are going to raise the stakes in dramatic fashion combining protests with economic and marketing suggestions to make this service work. Most buses I travel on are like a sardine tin on wheels – the figures quoted by SWT are so ridiculous they must have been produced after a heavy night out when they were celebrating the increased profits they are making by cutting this service.” ENDS - For further information please email office@saveourbus.org PUBLIC MEETING STATEMENT FROM SAVE OUR BUS CAMPAIGN 03/11/07 It was not exactly a cold wet winters night and it was November and the meeting had a late start, but within 5 minutes of opening the doors to the Save Our Bus Public Meeting helpers were running around putting out more seats. The public were still filing through the door when Cllr Mark Cooper, Mayor of Romsey, called meeting to start at 8.30pm, when at this point there were already over 150 people registered and packed into the Romsey Abbey United Reformed Church Hall and we had run out of chairs. It was an overwhelming turnout, the likes of which Romsey has not seen for several years, on a subject that has clearly touched a cross section of the community and has brought cross-party support and agreement. Clearly shaken by the high level campaign and public support for the Rail-Link Bus South West Trains came to the meeting with a “sweetener”, an interim proposal thrown together with Stagecoach at the 11th hour giving the service a stay of execution until July 2008 which will allow a period of consultation with all parties. As a result of the public meeting all parties, including SWT, Stagecoach, HCC, TVBC, Sandra Gidley, Caroline Nokes and other Cllrs and the Save Our Bus Campaign, publicly agreed to form a Working Party to address the continuation of the service and in particular issues such as the marketing, ways to increase usage, funding of the service and a timetable that meets as many sections of the community needs as possible, including those using the service to meet trains. Nadine Taylor from the Save Our Bus Campaign, said "this is a small victory for us but we know that there is still a lot of work to be done and we are committed to the long term project. I will be approaching all the parties over the next week with a view to getting everyone around the table before Christmas to start work on this project. My concern is that 6 months will go very quickly so I intend to harness the wave of support and goodwill shown by everyone at the meeting and bring all parties together as soon as possible. The aim is to start addressing these key issues and I would urge the public to do their bit by using the service to show their support to Romsey and Winchester". "We were approached at the meeting by several members of the public who asked us to bring the campaign to Winchester, so we will continue with our plans for the protest on the 9th November. We will be taking the Rail-Link Bus from Romsey Bus Station to Winchester Railway Station, dressed in a Father Christmas Theme, to raise awareness of the campaign there and get people to sign petitions and lend their support. This is a very important part of the campaign because it is Winchester that would bear the brunt of the increased number of cars coming into the city, parking issues and pollution and as a city this is something Winchester can not afford to have in light of the recent environmental reports". Feelings ran high at the meeting and on several occasions the public expressed this with boos and jeers when SWT outlined their decision and rationale to axe the service. The meeting heard several impassioned stories from people who not only view the Rail-Link Bus as an essential service but part of their work life balance and it was clear that the people of Romsey were not prepared to give up this service without a fight. Nadine explained that "We have already been inundated with emails of support since the public meeting, including students at Peter Symonds who have got on board this campaign in their droves. One student arrived at the meeting with a dozen completed petitions and photographs of the buses he has been using showing the numbers of people on board, in particular when there has been standing room only. As experienced campaigners Matt and I have worked on many projects but this one has surprised even us, so we would like to thank everyone for coming to the meeting and for their support on this campaign, it really has shown what can be done through people power in merely a matter of a couple of weeks". While the stay of execution is a welcome opportunity for everyone to get behind this service and use it, campaigners expressed concern at the part HCC played in the axing of this service. It was revealed at the public meeting that SWT notified HCC about their plans to axe the service back in September 2006 and HCC had done nothing to inform its residents or look at alternatives for the residents of Winchester and in particular Romsey. It was clear that all parties had deliberately kept this information from the public for as long as possible so that it was presented to bus and rail travellers as a 'fait accompli' Nadine said "we will be looking to HCC to reverse that position and look at ways we can increase the bus services in this area and not decrease them, especially as we have the prospect of at least 800 new homes in Romsey, more and more youngsters going to college and university in Winchester and workers turning to greener options of travel, things that clearly SWT had not factored into their business plan 18 months ago". “Although SWT have agreed to fund additional buses during the consultation period we are extremely concerned about the buses they have chosen to fund. The extra buses in the evening force commuters returning from London on the 17.35 train to wait over 40 minutes at Winchester Railway Station for a bus. Previously they could have got a bus 10 minutes after arriving safe in the knowledge that if their train was running late then the bus drivers would delay the bus to enable them to get home without further delays at Winchester. If I was being cynical I would say that SWT have deliberately chosen these 6 extra services because they cause travellers the longest waits at Winchester Station for connecting trains and buses. Their collective response would be “get the train to Southampton Parkway then and go to Romsey” which is what they were trying to achieve by shutting this service. It would also have the effect of generating more income for them and cost the traveller more in time and money. Interestingly the SWT website has already dropped the term Rail-Link Bus calling the revised interim service a “bus service”, which effectively it is as it is not designed to enable commuters in either direction to use the joined up travelling they previous had to link in with trains. An extra 10 or 15 minutes on your journey when you are commuting early in the morning and in the evening really does have a knock on effect on your day, especially when you are trying to juggle families and childcare and want some sort of life outside of the working day. A 40 minute wait to get home is the last thing anyone wants. This new timetable is a calculated move by SWT and Stagecoach, forced on us at the 11th hour at the Public Meeting on Thursday, and designed to force people onto other train routes and into their cars so that between now and July numbers do reduce to justify the closure.” “It is wonderful news for Romsey that SWT are utilising Romsey Railway Station more with increased trains but that is a separate matter and one that is long over due. An integrated public transport system gives people choice and the choice the Rail-Link Bus passengers made was to leave their cars at home. It is not possible to get a bus to Romsey Railway Station anyway. A proper consultation period means that ALL existing rail-link services stay in place for at least 6 months so we can all accurately monitor the usage. What will happen now is that we will be forced to monitor routes and times we know will be under-used because they already present us with cut backs and delays for passengers which the commuters trying to get to and from work can not sustain if they want to continue working and that’s the bottom line.” “I will be asking SWT and Stagecoach to immediately re-instate ALL the existing Rail-Link Buses so we can get an accurate picture of the situation and not one manipulated to massage the SWT figures. We also want SWT to continue to refer to the service as the Rail-Link Bus Service or the route will be lost even more in the minds of other travellers. We also need a cast iron guarantee from Stagecoach that Rail-ticket machines will be on all busses. It was and will be totally unacceptable for Andrew Dyer of Stagecoach to blame drivers as he did at the public meeting. Management should never criticise staff publicly like that. The bus-drivers on this route are dedicated to this route and their passengers. We heard stories on Thursday evening of bus-drivers looking out for certain youngsters as they travelled back and forward to ensure they were safely on the bus of an evening. As well as knowing their regular commuters by name they look out for people and raise concerns if they are absent. These days there is not enough of that type of community spirit as we chase profits and business targets.” “HCC agreed to monitor the service for the Working Party so we will expect them to argue that in order to present an accurate picture the existing service should stay in place.” “We will be keeping up the pressure on SWT and by taking the campaign to Winchester next week we hope to raise greater awareness and bring home to other commuters at Winchester the knock on effect to them that the axing of this service could cause.” concluded Nadine. SAVE
OUR BUS - Press Release 25th October 2007 Campaigners from the Romsey based ‘Save Our Bus’ campaign said today that it had received information that drivers on the Romsey to Winchester Rail Link bus which is due to be closed on December 8th, have been threatened with the sack if they discuss the closures or the campaign with passengers. The news comes as campaigners say they will take their fight to South West Train’s Head Office in London, to the Stockmarket or even to Stagecoach Chief Executive Brian Souter. Campaign co-ordinator Matt O’Connor said today that he understands that a ‘revenue feud’ between South West trains and parent company Stagecoach was behind the decision to shut the service. He has learnt from a sympathetic source in South West Trains that performance and revenue bonuses paid to respective Managing Directors of Stagecoach subsidiaries including South West Trains and a quarrel over revenue led to the decision to effectively close the Romsey-Winchester Rail-Link and divert the resources to start a new rail-link bus service between Petersfield and Cowplain. Said O’Connor, “There is an unpleasant whiff of corporate bullying and deceit about this. Stagecoach and South West Trains are politicking with people’s lives whilst our elected representatives are wringing their hands and pleading helplessness.” “SWT say that the bus is only for rail commuters but it doesn’t say that anywhere and all members of the public have been welcome to use it. They say the figures are in decline but haven’t been able to provide the breakdown in figures we asked for let alone explain why only one bus out of three has a ticket machine on which you can purchase rail tickets.” “Somebody somewhere has to be accountable because at the moment the much vaunted integrated transport policy is about as joined up as my two-year-old’s hand writing. I really despair what’s going to happen to the people who have contacted us.” “There are desperate pensioners, midwives, students and commuters who all need this communication life-line. One pensioner said he felt like throwing himself in front of a bus, if only he could find one.” “The decision to cut this service makes a mockery of SW Train’s service statement on their web site which states, ‘Our services play an important role in delivering social inclusion, helping people in rural and urban areas access work, education, health, shopping and leisure.’” Campaigners have re-branded South West Trains ‘Scrooge West Trains’ in their campaign. |
On
Monday of this week Nadine Taylor and Sandra Gidley MP met with
Tom Harris, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport
to challenge the government on how it expects to reduce carbon
emissions when people are being forced back into their cars because
of the closure of local bus service.