A massive 65 per cent of passengers using the First Great Western main line to London Paddington would consider moving house if the service significantly deteriorated.
And if the service in future forced them to change trains at Newbury, then 30 per cent of passengers would “definitely” stop using the service altogether while at further 58 per cent said they would “may be” stop buying a ticket to London.
These are among the alarming answers to the five-day survey carried out by Pewsey Train Watch as part of the Department of Transport consultation process to discover the economic benefits of electrifying the line to Westbury.
It also shows that the number of passengers using Bedwyn and Kintbury were under-estimated by up to 38 per cent.
And it reveals that “an overwhelming proportion of passengers” would abandon the rail service and turn instead to their cars for transport” if extended electrification doesn’t take place.
There was a huge response to the “anonymous” survey, which produced more than 1,900 responses, 96 per cent of whom travel regularly from Kintbury, Hungerford, Bedwyn, Pewsey or Westbury and 94 per cent travelling eastbound beyond Newbury.
“It is worth noting that local interest in this issue is so high that the Pewsey Train Watch website crashed under the weight of hits and we had to move to a larger server within a few hours of opening the survey,” spokesman Karl Lloyd told Marlborough News Online.
The survey provided further evidence of the value passengers put on direct services to London, especially for business purposes. Some 48 per cent of respondents “often” work on the train while 37 per cent do “sometimes”, this productivity being lost if passengers were required to change at Newbury or instead drove to London by car.
The survey showed the average annual wage of respondents to be £72,000 with 22 per cent earning more than £90,000, thus under-pinning the economic benefits to the region of an extension to electrification.
“This will be a significant factor in the economic modelling and how it takes into account the benefit of the trains to the wider local economy beyond the train users as studies suggest as much as 80 per cent of income is spent within 20 miles of home,” adds the survey report.
And it adds: “Ninety-four per cent of respondents who moved into the region were influenced by the rail lines with 68 per cent citing good rail links as “very” important to their decision to move.
“Sixty-five per cent of respondent individuals would consider moving out of the region if the rail services significantly deteriorated. Forty-eight per cent of business owning respondents located their businesses in the region “very much” because of the trains.
“A further 25 per cent cited the trains as “partially” responsible for their decision to locate their business in the region.”
The survey points out that another 83 per cent of unemployed people considered rail links as “very” important to their search for work, “clearly indicating that trains bring a disproportionate amount of wealth into the local economies by attracting high worth individuals and businesses – and facilitating higher levels of employment.”
And it reports: “Sixty-five of residents would consider relocation if rail services deteriorated. Seventy-four per cent of business respondents would consider relocating their businesses if rail services deteriorated.
“This exodus is unlikely to be offset by “replenishment” given the figures quoted for residents and businesses citing rail links as a major factor when locating to a region.
“Eight-one per cent of respondents said their business/place of work would ‘definitely’ suffer if rail services got worse, an overwhelming proportion of passengers potentially abandoning the rail service have indicated they would take to their cars, causing significant impact upon stations other than those directly along the electrification extension route.”
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