I was speaking with a long distance business traveller yesterday who's been travelling around a bit in recent weeks in the new Great Western Area and thought I would share an observation or two with you.

"There were more passengers in [each] coach on the "TransWilts" service than on most of the other trains I took" He went on to detail a journey that included Bath, Bristol, Taunton and Westbury legs. "The exception was the Commuter train toward Filton Abbey Wood, where dozens of people were standing as it arrived in Bath"

There's growing information / suggestions that traffic figures on the Bristol - Westbury - Salisbury - Southampton - Portmouth are seriously distorted downwards and that there will be severe overcrowding on that line once First reduce the train length to a standard 2 coaches and the frequency to every hour - unless they can find some way to level out the peaks and troughs.  And there's growing evidence too that the Swindon to Wesbury service continues to build to the extent that its loadings are now significanyly better than certain other trains.