Hardship (From Herald Series)

Hardship

9:00am Wednesday 24th June 2009

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Sir, We will concede Richard Watts his historical knowledge on railway travel arrangements a century ago, but we will not concede his other points.

The trains which stop two or three times an hour at his station, Cholsey, are now running through Appleford (and Culham) without stopping for up to six consecutive hours per day (and he has the alternative of a frequent bus service compared with our two buses per week).

He may be happy that most of us have been forced off public transport into private cars, contrary to our wishes and the wishes of most environmentalists, political parties and tactless railway advertising on the station which, once again, exhorts us to travel off-peak.

However, some students, pensioners and those who need to travel to work at times outside the peak hours do not have the private car option and are now suffering even greater hardship than under the old timetable.

First Great Western were awarded the franchise to run this local service, not to convert it to an express service, make it unusable or successively close it down at a time when 40 other stations around the country are being considered for reopening.

It has not been unnoticed that in recent years they have gone out of their way to make travel difficult for local passengers in various ways and many paid tickets have not been fully honoured.

They have said themselves that the number of villagers who have written to complain, a large proportion of the village, far exceeds the number still struggling to use what remains of the service.

Stuart Fisher Sinodun Row Appleford-on-Thames

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