| Felletin - the bullet once avoided, and to be avoided again, at Melksham Posted by grahame at 11:16, 31st August 2025 |     |
https://grahamellis.uk/blog1705.html
Barring a miracle, today (written 31.8.2025) is the last day of train service to Aubesson and Felletin in France.
[snip]
I think back to Melksham's train service and the period from 2006 to 2013 when we, too, had just 2 trains a day with the "too early, too late" 'joke' that was no joke. 3,000 passenger journeys a year sounded a lot - until you worked out that it was 1 or 2 people getting on or off each train - similar to I saw in Felletin.
[snip]
Since 2013, we have come so far forward, but we have faded back on unreliability (as I write, another of today's trains in cancelled through lack of staff) and we must ensure that for the future of our town we move forward - as Corby, or Ebbw Vale, or Tweedbank, Leven, Alloa or Ashington have done and that we don't fall back from our "halfway there" position and find ourselves loosing again as Felletin and Aubesson do today.
[snip]
I think back to Melksham's train service and the period from 2006 to 2013 when we, too, had just 2 trains a day with the "too early, too late" 'joke' that was no joke. 3,000 passenger journeys a year sounded a lot - until you worked out that it was 1 or 2 people getting on or off each train - similar to I saw in Felletin.
[snip]
Since 2013, we have come so far forward, but we have faded back on unreliability (as I write, another of today's trains in cancelled through lack of staff) and we must ensure that for the future of our town we move forward - as Corby, or Ebbw Vale, or Tweedbank, Leven, Alloa or Ashington have done and that we don't fall back from our "halfway there" position and find ourselves loosing again as Felletin and Aubesson do today.
