It was good to meet some more of you "in the flesh" early yesterday morning - it was very much worth breaking my routine to be around when normally I'm not.

For the record, the 05:52 and 06:56 both left Melksham with 6 people on board and the 07:45 left with 26. Regulars tell me this was a quiet day, and indeed my past experience is that Monday and Friday tend to be busier.  But I CAN tell you that the early services were much busier than when I first used them - traffic IS growing.

Almost everyone I spoke to felt that the new services were a step in the wrong direction.  There were a couple of exceptions - people who felt that the later running of the evening train from Trowbridge would be a help to them personally - but they were more than outbalanced by people who felt that the earlier commuter train timing in the morning, with a need to leave much earlier and connect from Frome, and the later run in the evening, would encourage them back onto the road. 

With the train now operated out of Gloucester, it was wondered if we could ask the DfT and First to add a one coach (153) unit onto the first train up in the morning to Swindon, and use it to provide a service every two hours between the 6:20 a.m. and 6:12 p.m. on the Westbury run.

I was speaking with an off duty rail employee over the last couple of days, and asking him if the withdrawn services were really because of the perceived financial cost,  or because of a lack of suitable rolling stock.  "Bit of both" he replied, citing the fact that First want the extra coach to add to one of the Portsmouth to Cardiff (now extended to Rhoose) services to help increase all of them from 2 to 3 or 4 coaches.

There are going to be 9 train sets on that route, so that's about 25 coaches - in other words, the coach that would provide a tripling of the capacity on the Swindon to Westbury line is to be used to provide a 4% increase on the Roose to Portsmouth.

In all honsety, I can't see a 4% capacity increase with no extra services resulting in any more ticket sales on Rhoose - Portsmouth, but I CAN see a 300% increase in services over the initial proposal being a huge difference on Swindon - Westbury.  Difference in cost to First?  The cost of a train crew for the "153" ...