WESTBURY train users are being overcharged and there are not enough train services in Dilton Marsh. That’s the view of Westbury Town Council which is writing to the Government and rail companies to complain.
The town will write to transport secretary Chris Grayling MP, Great Western Railway, South West Trains and Wiltshire Council, to complain that local people are being overcharged for travelling by train.
The letter says that fares are so disproportionate that they discourage train travel and put Westbury at a disadvantage to other nearby towns.
The complaint also criticises the ‘rare’ services through Dilton Marsh Halt, a station that the council says now serves about a quarter of the town as well as the village.
Councillors will condemn an ‘unfair pricing structure’ and say, “Passengers travelling from Westbury or Dilton Marsh Halt to Salisbury pay a significant surcharge that is not justified by either time or distance, particularly when compared with nearby Warminster.”
Town councillor Ian Cunningham brought up the issue after he found it was easier and cheaper to drive to Warminster to get a train than to get one from Dilton Marsh.
Cllr Cunningham’s research showed that when a single fare from Westbury to Salisbury costs £12.80, the same journey starting in Melksham costs £12.90, an increase of just ten pence for a trip ten miles longer. However, the fare from Warminster to Salisbury is £7.30, meaning the section of the journey between Westbury and Warminster – approximately five miles – costs £5.50.
The journey from Dilton Marsh costs £11.40 but most involve a change at Westbury and some take twice as long.
Cllr Cunningham’s research showed that passengers from Westbury paid an average of 52 pence per mile for the journey, while people travelling from Melksham or Warminster paid just 37 pence per mile.
When the same fare was booked in advance on the Trainline website it could work out £2.30 cheaper to pay for a ticket from Melksham and get on the train when it stopped at Westbury.
The council says in its letter, “Our issue is one of the unfairness of the situation. Why should people in a poor rural town pay so much more for their travel to a city in the same county, travelling on the same train?
“We seek an undertaking to provide our residents who use our stations with a fairer fare structure. We also want to discourage users of this service from driving to Warminster, or even to Salisbury, as Westbury prices discourage train travel.”
The council also says that more trains should stop at Dilton Marsh because the majority are just a shuttle to Westbury, where passengers have to wait before passing back through the village without stopping on the second train.
The council argues that £9.05 would be a fair fare from Westbury to Salisbury, and £8.50 from Dilton Marsh. If somebody made the trip from Westbury five times, the difference could save them £18.75.
The letter ends, “We consider that these surcharges are not justified in any circumstance but particularly when looking at a town with the deprivation suffered by Westbury. At the very least we expect parity with fares for rail travellers in Westbury and Warminster.”
