Very sad.  The average number of passengers on each train in the most recent figures I have before the December cuts (FGW figures) was 34 and we're told that the the new service was designed to loose th quieter trains and retain the peak service.  So why is it that the traffic on a supposedly busy service is down to under 10% of the aveage on 2nd, and 30% of the avaerage on 4th?

Rather than just "knock", let me be constructive.   The new timings make for too long a day ... the "peak" services have not been retained, but rather they have all been scrapped and a new off peak only service provided.  Although the train one way or the other may be useful to a few people, a 2-train-per-day service should run close to the timing up to December last, with a Swindon arrival / turn around at 08:30 and another at 17:30.   Interestingly, such a service is WITHIN the SLC2 specification set out by the government.

Now - those new timings are going to loose extended day passengers (such as Sion); the train set used (now in the peak hour) could very usefully do a further round trip earlier in the morning and later in the evening.   So that;s 05:45, 07:45, 16:45 and 18:45 off Westbury and 06:45, 08:45, 17:45 and 19:45 off Swindon.  The extra trains would do generously better than the current services as they would make it practical for people to commute, either way, and have an extended day at one end - a usefule option not offered at the moment.

There has been talk of daytime servicing of trains; with this 4-train scheme, that's practical.   It would also be practical (with slight timing change to the earliest / latest services) to extend to Frome.

What say you DfT?  What say you First?  What say you Wilts CC?   You're all involved.