No hint of progress on campaign to extend rail electrification to Bedwyn and Pewsey

Steve Smith of the Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group has found current evidence that Network Rail still seem to be working on the premise that electrification of the line from Paddington will stop at Newbury.

Published this month, Network Rail’s ‘Western Route Study’ states:  “Following electrification to Newbury, the 2019 Industry Train Service Specification (ITSS) assumes that the current London Paddington – Bedwyn service will operate with electric rolling stock and therefore be truncated at Newbury. A diesel shuttle service is proposed between Newbury and Bedwyn. These services will operate all day.“
 
Steve Smith comments: “It looks as if the Department for Transport and Network Rail still, at least publicly, have their head in the sand about the problem this will cause commuters from Bedwyn, Hungerford and Kintbury.”
 
And there is no hint of progress on this issue from Devizes MP Claire Perry, now that she has become rail minister in the Department for Transport. In the House of  Commons yesterday (October 23) she faced a somewhat tongue-in-cheek question from a Labour MP:

“A few days before her appointment, the rail minister wrote to her predecessor about proposals that direct services to London from Bedwyn and Pewsey would cease as a result of electrification proposals that she described as “mad”. Will she tell the House whether she has now received a reply from herself, whether she has had an opportunity to read it and whether she agrees with herself?”

Mrs Perry replied:  “The hon. Gentleman has rightly pointed out that one of my important local campaigning priorities is the maintenance of those vital direct links, but as he will know, as a former minister, owing to ministerial propriety I can no longer directly comment on or investigate those links.”

“I am delighted to say, however, that electrification and investment on that network is an important priority for this Government.”

There is still time to sign the Bedwyn Trains Passenger Group’s e-Petition where they call upon the Department to specify, in the forthcoming franchise extension document, that Bedwyn, Hungerford and Kintbury retain their current level of direct Paddington services.