September 30, 2005
An easy timetable - Melksham to Chippenham and Swindon
I was reading in this morning's Wiltshire Times a letter describing the problems of finding out the times of the direct Trowbridge to Waterloo train service, even at Trowbridge station. Dear letter writer, I know how you feel; the signs at Melksham are entitled "South Wales to Brighton", and if you're travelling from Melksham to Swindon you need to look under the "Brighton to South Wales" part Of course!
What's needed? Well - I personally would like to see a simple statement along the lines of:
Trains leave Melksham station for CHIPPENHAM and SWINDON as follows:
Monday to Friday:
05:52 07:45 13:35 17:02 21:33
Saturday:
08:01 13:35 17:00 21:50
Sunday:
12:44 16:43 21:03
and arrive at Chippenham about 10 minutes later, and Swindon about 25 minutes later.
Trains return from Swindon to MELKSHAM at
Monday to Friday:
06:30 08:46 14:23 17:43 22:11
Saturday:
08:50 14:23 17:50 22:25
Sunday:
13:21 17:23 21:41
These trains leave CHIPPENHAM about 15 minutes after Swindon, and arrive at Melksham 25 minutes after Swindon.
I need just one footnote - please note that up to and including Sunday, 6th November, the weekend service is replaced by a bus running to a slightly different timetable. See here
Posted by gje at 08:56 AM
September 29, 2005
Didn't you read page 52 of web document?
With apologies to Douglas Adams (and I paraphrase)
"Hadn't you seen the notice that Earth was going to be destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass - the notice was at the library on planet xxxxx for 9 years and if you had asked the assistant there about it, she would have moved the coffee machine so that you could read it ...."
I was reminded of Douglas Adam's hyperspace bypass yesterday by a letter from "Whitehall" telling me that the plans for the new service levels were sent out for consultation in the spring and they got very little feedback about Melksham. Small wonder if those of us who use the service, or have a business that relies on the service, didn't see the consultation documents; perhaps they went to the wrong place. And perhaps our line was hidden (and I've used the word hidden intentionally) within some other deep document.
I first became aware that there was an issue with service reduction in August. An article in the paper lead me to a 100 page SRA document at a fairly obsure URL. The Melksham service was an implication of a single line on page 52 .....
Posted by gje at 08:51 AM
September 27, 2005
Core meeting
After last week's launch meeting, the rapidly-called "core" follow up is this evening; to investigate boosting use of current services, gathering statistics, and lobbying to get "on the radar". Also looking at what service is required for the future (let's not be luddites!) and how to best organise ourselves or fit into another organisation to help meet these objectives effectively!
19:30 at 404, The Spa. If you're last-minute interested, please call me on 01225 708225 or email me through graham@wellho.net.
Posted by gje at 08:33 AM
September 25, 2005
Regularity, Reliability, Realistic connections
I was down at the chippie yesterday evening ... and "talking train".
"I would use it if it actually ran when I wanted it and it actually turned up" .... "I have to go to Swindon, but I tend to get a lift / drive / go by road into Chippenham and catch the train from there"
Traffic levels have leapt since the train service to Melksham was increased in 2001, and they would leap again if the service was regularly timed (at xx minutes after the even hour, for example) and was reliable.
Regularity, Reliability and realistic connections keep coming up - time and again - as people's main concerns / the main reasons why they're not using the present service as much as we would like (make no mistake though - the current service IS used).
* People would rather have a regular service than one that's irregular, even if the irregular service gives a few more trains per day.
* People would rather have a reliable service than one that's so stretched that if fails to turn up sometimes, and they would rather have a service that takes a few minutes longer that one that's so optimisticaly timed that it's always missing connections.
* People would rather have a service that did connect even if they had to leave home a few minutes earlier, or if they arrived a few minutes later. There are some - err - gross examples on the current schedule. The first Melksham to Southampton train calls at Westbury TWO MINUTES after the London Express has left. Returning from Weymouth on Saturday evening, the train from Weymouth pulls in to Westbury 7 minutes after the Swindon train has left ...
Posted by gje at 08:09 AM
September 24, 2005
Swindon to Trowbridge
If you're travelling from Swindon to Trowbridge, the obvious way to go is by train - there's a direct service 5 times a day with a journey time of about 40 minutes. The bus - route 49, known as the "Trans-Wilts Express" - takes about an hour and 25 minutes.
Another option by rail is to catch the Bristol train from Swindon and change at Bath.
You need to be fit if you're going to change at Bath - once you arrive there, you'll have to go down the stairs to the tunnel under the station ...
.... then back up another long flight of stairs on the other side to catch your onwards train 
I was down at Bath station the other day, seeing off visitors who were travelling by train to Barrow in Furness (Sorry - they had to leave Melksham during the big morning gap in service so I couldn't put them on the train there!) and took these pictures. The change is a real struggle with luggage, or for anyone who's not in the best of health. The staff, though, were very helpful. Thank you.
Posted by gje at 12:56 PM
September 23, 2005
35% Growth in one year - Melksham ticket statistics
In the year 2003/2004, 20390 tickets were sold for journeys to or from Melksham. In the year 2004/2005, that rose by 35% to 27,435 journeys.
With Melksham continuing to grow rapidly, with fuel costs ever higher and with more than ever congestion, I believe that train usage would continue to grow if the level of service were to be maintained at its current level.
Posted by gje at 09:38 AM
September 21, 2005
Great meeting but just a start.
I'm writing this early - VERY early - so that I've got something up for people who visit the site before going off to work (I can hope!!).
Big, successful meeting last night and although everyone has a different angle, everyone wants better for Melksham and for the Swindon to Salisbury train service than is currently being offered under the requested franchise bids. That, at least, was very encouraging. I'll be updating this site (and returning 35 chairs we had on loan!) today.
If you came - thank you. If you missed it - everyone's very busy and has other commitments, I know .. and we've only had four weeks of publicity from a standing start so yo may not have been aware. If you've already been in touch, I'll send you minutes. If you haven't, please contact me via the petition form, support form, email, phone (01225 708225) fax (01225 707126) or post (404,The Spa, Melksham, SN12 6QL). Thanks!
Posted by gje at 06:53 AM
September 19, 2005
Meeting!
20th September, 7 for 7:30, 404, The Spa, Melksham. Sponsored by Graham Ellis (author of this diary). Everyone who's interested is welcome.
Posted by gje at 08:26 PM
September 18, 2005
Old pictures. Not to be repeated event
We went along to the meeting of the Melksham Historic Society the other night ... and they'e going to be sending us a CD with some pictures on to put up here. In the meantime, here is an old picture that shows Melksham station on the last day of service in 1966 ...
Please ... don't let's have another last day of service. Please do come along to our meeting on 20th; that won't save the train in itself, but it may help us get the supoprt going to save the train ... or rather to have in progress into a much better and more suitable service.
14:49 departure to Southampton via Salisbury, Friday last
Posted by gje at 09:29 PM
September 16, 2005
Don't believe everything you hear
"It's just an empty stock working really" they told me about the train that calls at Melksham at 05:53 on its way up from Westbury to Swindon. And - foolish me - I believed them.
This morning, there were three passengers on the train as it arrived in Melksham and another joined - that's four passengers for whom there's no public transport alternative at all ... the very first bus to Chippenham doesn't leave for another 90 minutes ....
Posted by gje at 06:24 AM
September 15, 2005
Excursion!
Have you ever driven round the central car park in Salisbury looking for a parking spot? I know I have! And yet ... Salisbury station is quite close to the centre and directly served from Melksham ... with further connections available.
The 09:15 train on Saturday mornings (but there's bus substitution at the moment) gets into Salisbury at 10:06. A return journey ay 15:41 gets you back to Melksham at 17:00, with a change at Westbury. I'm planning a pre-christmas shopping trip in November!
Picture - Salisbury Cathedral
Posted by gje at 07:11 AM
September 14, 2005
Official (Government) view ... and I agree
From Transport Times
The transport secretary [Alistair Darling] stresses that he is in favour of keeping open local branch lines if at all possible. “But there comes a time when a line is carrying two passengers in the morning and two in the evening, you do have to ask yourself what else we can do.”
Yes, I agree. If a line is carrying just four passengers a day, something in the current setup isn't working as it should be. That MAY be that there's simply no call for the service, or that it's the wrong service being provided - and sometimes (I suspect) the wrong service is provided by rail-unfriendly people in places of responsibility as an intentional step to supress demand (please do NOT read that as a comment that's local to the Melksham area, by the way).
How do the traffic levels for Melksham compare? I have figures that show over fifty passengers a day booked to or from Melksham, and that does NOT include passengers making journeys such as Swindon to Trowbridge. Swindon to Westbury. Chippenham to Westbury. Swindon to Warminster. Swindon to Salisbury ....
Posted by gje at 11:55 PM
September 13, 2005
Encouraging traffic not just warm words
Last night, I had perhaps the most thought-provoking discussion so far ... the question of how to encourage people to USE the service that everyone says that they want. Perhaps this is the $64000 question; some ideas formulated ;-) ....
There's no doubt in my mind that potential customers are driven away by a service that's unreliable, or perceived to be unreliable, and by a service that's infrequent, or is perceived to be infrequent. Would running a local Swindon to Westbury service which wasn't going to be effected by emergency engineering in Salisbury give us better reliability? Would a train every 2 hours rather than sporadically at present increase the traffic to the extent that there would be more people on more trains, or would it just spead out the current numbers, said to be thin?
It would require guts and a willingness to take a chance to up the service to - say - once an hour. But do so and, perhaps, the train will start taking that load off the roads; people WOULD use the train to shop in Chippenham or Swindon, to commute to work for non-core hours, to visit friends and contacts. If you've travelled to London from Melksham and you've drive to Chippenham to start your journey, perhaps you would go from Melksham instead.
Posted by gje at 08:16 AM
September 11, 2005
Meeting, 20th September - getting nervous
I'm getting a bit nervous - probably no bad thing. It's just over a week to go to the Open meeting I have called. I've had over 50 forms filled in on the site, and over 400 distinct visitors. Views expressed have ranged from the mildly supporting through to - and this is the majority - enthusiastic support. That doesn't mean that folks can make it that day and I haven't made the meeting the main theme behind the web site ... so thus I'm nervous between an empty meeting and people queueing at the door.
Preparation. Agenda set - yes. Details published on line - yes. Thought given to running the meeting - yes; I'm quite happy about steering a group of up to 60. Still nervous though!
Posted by gje at 10:57 PM
September 10, 2005
Don't let this become history!
Here's a picture of a daytime train just outside Melksham station; I'll intersperse this update and diary page with pictures from time to time as a picture paints a thousand words.
Alas, times do move on - there are already historic aspects to this picture even though it was taken just a few months ago. The factory, former home of GEC Mechanical handling has been demolished and residences are being built on the site as I write. Melksham has strong commuter flows to the neighbouring towns and this new development is ideally placed for people to travel to Chippenham, Swindon and Trowbridge. Let's hope that the trains are still running when they move in and they can get to Swindon in 25 minutes rather than 55 by bus.
Posted by gje at 11:23 AM
September 09, 2005
Looking slightly wider
I've concentrated on Swindon to Westbury, with three intermediate stops - but there are other services / patterns outside the area that should be looked at / considered. Some are wild suggestions, others sensible. Some have major cost (Sponsorship ?) implications. Logged here ... to have all the cards on the table and NOT to dilute the specific campaign
Salisbury and Southampton
The present Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury service rus through - in theory - to Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton. In 2001, most trains ran through. But in the last couple of years, more trains have stopped short, have had a layover of up to 30 minutes added at Westbury, or are running through but advertised as a connecting not a through service.
One of the trickier things that I'm considering at the moment is whether I should be looking to represent / save the whole through service, or have a more specific target of the Swindon to Westbury section. Onwards from there, there are other train services and the Swindon train fills in part of a pattern; I don't know loadings or the metrics of stations like Dean, Dunbridge and (closer to home) Dilton Marsh. Part of me says the whole service should be discussed / saved. And another part says that a good connection onwards at Westbury might be a good or better solution. I do have letters from Southampton and Salisbury councils offering at least a degree of support / concern into the train loss - all be it that the support is much more concerned with loss of local frequency there.
Southampton Airport
A daily service used to run direct to / from Southampton airport but that queitly slipped away. Good airport, useful link. Shame it went. A fully retained / revitalised Swindon to Southampton could "loop" Romsey - Eastleigh - Southampton Airport - Southampton - Romsey and would provide an excellent and useful through service from Salisbury, North and West Wilts and Swindon. But it would need to be most / every service not just the last train of the day!
The Bradford on Avon Curve
The North Curve at Bradford on Avon was taken out of use in about 1990. Prior to that point it allowed the line through Melksham to be an even more useful diversionary route if there were engineering works in Corsham / Box tunnel. Correspondents have suggested that the curve be re-instated and that it would give the opportunity for a through commuter (and more) service to Bath / Bristol / Abbey Wood without any need to change; these are all Melksham commuter flows.
A train every 2 hours
With a selfcontained service on the Swindon to Westbury section, reliability could be improved (dependent on connections being kept / allowed to miss / timing of them) and with a single train set service could increase to a train every two hours. A preliminary look suggests ex Westbury at 05:45, 07:45, 09:45, 12:45, 14:45, 16:45, 18:45 and 20:45, returning from Swindon at 06:45, 08:45, 10:45, 13:45, 15:45, 17:45, 19:45 and 21:45. Nice regular pattern, with a one hour break during the day for staff / servicing of the set, and the pattern fits the current services / user flows with minimal
major change.
Wootton Bassett and West Swindon Parkway
There have been suggestions of a West Swindon park and ride / commuter service and a re-opened station at Wootton Bassett. The Westbury service is the ONLY train along this line that isn't a 125 mph express and is the logical service to provide the extra stops. The former Bristol to Oxford service would have provided this service (and also a stop in Corsham where a new station was on the cards) until it was withdrawn.
(Footnote - why was it withdrawn. I think we were told that it was because the capacity wasn't there / tracks were overused. Rumour suggested that most Train Opperating Companies had to sacrifice a service or two due to capacity, even though in Great Western's case there really wasn't a track capacity problem ... it was done to look fair. What were traffic level like? I know I used the service and Melksham of Chippenham to Oxford has changed from a pleasure to a nightmare with poor connections at Didcot and even from Chippenham, sometimes the need to change twice)
Filton Abbey Wood
At present, several rush hour services from Filton Abbey Wood run direct (not via Bristol Temple Meads) to Keynsham, Bath, and the West Wilts line. I understand these direct trains may be under threat, with passengers required to change at Temple Meads ... slowing and adding misery to a commute. We have commuter(s) from Melksham who change onto this service at Trowbridge, And Filton / North Bristol is a major employment area. I have used the train to travel to both Abbey Wood and Bristol Parkway on business, and the changes mooted would have a seriously detrimental effect on journey times.
To be continued to ...
Lacock and Holt
Oxford to Westbury
Westbury to London
Westbury Westward
The night sleeper
Posted by gje at 06:34 AM
September 08, 2005
The story so far
History
Closed in the Beeching era, Melksham Station was re-opened in the early 1990s with a limited service - a train to Swindon in the morning and a return in the evening.
In May 2001, under (I believe) an agreement between Wiltshire Country Council and Wales and West Trains increased the service to 5 trains a day each way on Monday to Friday, 4 on Saturdays and 3 on Sundays, all running through from Swindon to Southampton. This service became a part of the "Wessex trains" operation when Wales and West was split into two franchises; it's not clear to me how the agreement with Wilts County Council was effected by this, there's a hint in correspondence that Wessex trains carried on running the service but outside any agreement.
Spring 2005, and the Wessex Franchise, together with Great Western and Great Western Link come up for renewal next year as a combined franchise. The Strategic rail authority asks for the bidders to quote for a service level that provides only for the peak hour train - Swindon to Southampton "to be discontinued". The withdrawal is a single line on page 52 of a long document, and the first point at which it came to my attention was in early August - at a time after any possible consultations; at that stage, the three bidders (National Express, First Group and Stagecoach) were getting the final stages of their bids together.
When I wrote to the bidders, all three replied with great courtesy but offered no real positive news; their replies were somewhat at odds with one another. Which leads me to believe that in at least once case the answer reflected rather less than the real situation. I can, however, appreciate that the bidders are vehicles of the system and can't themselves go right against the dictates of the (now defunct, so unable to answer for its actions!) SRA without lessening their chances of winning the franchise as a whole.
So where do we go from here
I use the trains from Melksham. My customers use the trains. The trains are busier than anyone will "admit" - there were the best part of 40 on the other Sunday when I travelled, for example. So I say how can we save the train?
As a start, let's let everyone know that we don't want to loose this service without a fight. But also let the running companies involved know that we want to work with the for the service / mutual good. So, personally, I've been "learning in".
And let's get the service better known yet. Hence this web site. Hence letters from myself and other press activities. Hence ... meeting ... 20th September 2005. I don't know what the outcome will be exactly ... but I do know my goals!
Posted by gje at 07:13 PM
September 07, 2005
Welcome to News and Views
Every day, something crops up and I think "that's useful information" and ... then ... I often forget it. What better, then, than a diary / notebook / blog. Published, comments welcome. You can help keep me "on track" and the train running ... Swindon -> Chippenham -> Melksham -> Trowbridge -> Westbury!
Posted by gje at 07:43 AM