357 signatures

Folks,

We have just reached 357 signatures, so only 9 short of our symbolic milestone of 366 (one signature to represent all four seasons) by the end of the month when sailings inevitably cease.

We are living in Victorian Britain, with a complete shutdown of river services on the non-tidal Thames due to poor infrastructure and unnecessary extended lock maintenance schedules at Teddington Lock. 

We need to live in the present, not in the past, and upgrade our infrastructure to 21st Century standards. Police boats, commuter services and regular  boat trips have been operating on the tidal section of the Thames for DECADES (with extra services just for the millennium on 31st December 1999, and Hammerton's Ferry on the upper tidal section runs from Early March to roughly early November), so it is absolutely possible to run river boats on the non-tidal Thames during the winter (and with heated vessels), so this really is an issue about infrastructure and lock maintenance schedules rather than weather.

This is a multi-year project but we have made a decent start with 350+ supporters, despite the 5-month gap between reaching our 100 and 200 signature milestones and unless a catastrophe happens, there are no plans to lock the campaign page any time soon!