LAST week I met with Andy Mellors, managing director of South Western Railway, to discuss the latest developments with train services in Salisbury and South Wiltshire.

South Western Railway took over the franchise from South West Trains in August and is planning to introduce a series of improvements across the network. The company is currently consulting on a new timetable which will come into effect from December 2018, and I am encouraging constituents to make sure that their voices are heard on the issue.

Among the changes being mooted are more frequent services from London Waterloo to Salisbury in the evening, which would certainly be welcomed by the many constituents who have written to me with tales of missed and cancelled last trains. Details on how to respond to the consultation can be found at southwesternrailway.com/contact-and-help/timetable-consultation.

Although the new proposed timetable looks like an improvement on the current situation, I remain restless for more significant change. Journey times to London are still too slow and I would like to see the introduction of some non-stop services from Salisbury at some point.

There is also scope to improve north-south services, improving access to the rest of the county and also to Southampton airport.

I realise that there is finite capacity on the network and no timetable can accommodate everyone’s wishes but opportunities to outline exactly how the majority of Salisbury people use the railway and what they want out of the new franchise are rare and not to be wasted.

I remain committed to more local changes as well, where the Wilton Parkway plan means that rail could also play a key part in easing road congestion and improving parking capacity at Salisbury station. Funding has been allocated for the further work that is needed to establish the viability of the plans.

The enthusiasm of the local community for the potential of improved transport links to the west of the city is a major asset to the project and I will be doing all I can to see that momentum is maintained.