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December 17, 2005
Melksham rail traffic up 33% in 3 months
Yesterday, I went down to Melksham Station and counted passengers on every train, and numbers boarding / leaving too (good to meet some of you I've not met before, and put faces to names too). I had done exactly the same things three months ago to the day - also a Friday - so that it gives me two sets of numbers I can realisically compare.
Details of each count:
16th September 2005
16th December 2005
In summary - 33% more traffic yesterday than in September; I'm not terribly sure I can give any specific reasons for the increase - I didn't / don't ask detailed questions especially of people on their own at night.
Some people, though, I do talk with and destinations yesterday included London, Tiverton and Neath as well as the more local traffic - a lot of people up and down to Swindon, Bristol Abbey Wood, Salisbury, etc.
Several issues struck me. Firstly, the utter desparate hardship that the loss of the service would put onto some people who cannot drive for medical reasons, and how expensive and tough things are for them already. Secondly, how the whole system is integrated and the people who travel up on the one "outbound" train in the morning come back on VARIOUS trains - so the cutting our of the less used trains would also lead to a loss of traffic on the few remaining ones.
The survey's a snapshot on two days that, as far as I know, were both typical. Is the general trend towards upward traffic levels? I believe so. I used to be the only one waiting for my train on the platform, but now there are always other people - a quote from one passenger I was chatting to. The 07:45 was standing room only yesterday according to another.
Posted by gje at December 17, 2005 10:17 AM