COMMENTS WELCOME ... here's my draft ... sending this to First in the next few days

I'm writing in response to your request for consultation feedback on the draft Monday to Friday timetable from December 2006.  As I live in Melksham, Wiltshire I travel from the station there so my comments are primarily on the service to and from that town.  We also receive many business visitors to the town, with around 40% of them arriving by train under the current timetable.

As you are proposing only 2 trains per day each way (a dramatic reduction on the current service), I'll go through each of them in turn and comment - if this service level does indeed become final, every single train will count.

1. The 19:13 Westbury to Swindon is a service at a brand new time and I don't see that this will be a time of high demand.  Frankly, at this time it looks like a convenient stock working to get the train that arrives at Wesbury at 18:53 back up to Swindon.  I would ask that you run this service at 17:13 (two hours earlier) so that it provides an evening commuter train from Trowbridge and Melksham to Chippenham and Swindon, taking the place (roughly) of the current 17:02 from Melksham.  When I last travelled on that service a couple of weeks ago, there were several dozen passengers on board when I got off at Chippenham.

2. The 06:20 from Swindon to Westbury replaces the current early train, which is lightly loaded until Trowbridge - there were four people on this train when it arrived in Melksham one day last week, no-one alighted and one person joined.  A lot of people do join the service at Trowbridge for Salisbury, but under the new draft timetable these people will simply catch the service that comes through Trowbridge from Bristol - little point in them joining the truncated Swindon to Southampton train.  I would ask you to run this train at 08:40 from Swindon (2 hours later) so that it provides a matching commuter service to Melksham and Trowbridge from Swindon and Chippenham, replacing the current train that arrives in Melksham just after 09:00.   The current train arriving in Melksham at this time is much busier that the earlier one, and this gives the opportunity for long distance arrivals from London.

Moving these two trains each by two hours will allow you to operate the service from Westbury with a short turn around at Swindon - operationally convenient - and it will mean that the very limited service runs at the time when it is (and will be) most used.  With active marketing, all four trains could be fairly busy (though they would all be busier still if you ran every 2 hours throughout the day). Leaving these trains as shown in the draft may lead to disappointing loadings.  I appreciate that the First group is new to this service, and I'm sure you'll take good note of this local advice / knowledge. 

3. The proposed 07:22 from Westbury to Swindon arrives in Swindon at 08:03 which is earlier than the current commuter service (08:18).  A year or two back, the service ran 15 minutes later and some custom was lost as a result of the change.  More would be lost if you made it even earlier. Talking to current users, they would prefer this train to run about 30 minutes later and the still-earlier running may result in many taking to their cars. 

4. The 17:43 from Swindon has become the 18:12 - again stretching the commuter's day.  There is some argument for running the train a little later that 17:43 - how about 18:00.  This would give people who have to rush for the 17:43 a few more minutes, and it would make much better ongoing connections at Westbury. 

In summary, I'm asking you to adjust the few trains that you'll be providing on this line to meet the beginning and end of day commuter requirements along the corridor.
        From Swindon at 08:40 and 18:00
        From Westbury at 07:40 and 17:00

Please note:

a) Good connections off these services are VITAL and the availability of reliable onward travel could make or break the service usage.  In particular, connections onward to Salisbury and Frome from Westbury.  London connections at Swindon are important too, but the Swindon to London service is quite frequent so there will always be an onward train.  In the return direction from London, I'll ask that you hold the Westbury train if the connecting train from London is late, as there isn't any alternative offered.

b) I cannot comment on proposed weekend services and I have not seen any draft timetables.  At the two train a day level, I would like to see the timings the same as they are on Monday to Friday, with the possible exception of the first Sunday train running at around lunchtime.

c) I believe that this line should be provided with a train service running every two hours throughout the day.  The comments made in this document relate to the best that can be provided within the limitation of just 2 trains each way each day and at best they're a compromise.  However, I feel the input is important if 2-a-day is the best you can do.