The effect of proposed train cuts on passengers travelling to our Well House Consultants courses in Melksham. Some 40% of our delegates currently arrive by train from all over the country - commonly travelling via London's Paddington station which I've used in this example.

Current travel plan at the start of a course:

train:
Paddington 07:45
Swindon 08:40

train:
Swindon 08:46
Melksham 09:12

Alternative possibilities if the train arriving at 09:12 is withdrawn

train:
Paddington 05:43
Bath Spa 07:17

by bus:
Bath Bus Station 07:40
Melksham 08:15

The AA's routefinder site gives a journey time of 2 hours 22 minutes for this journey. For an 09:15 arrival in Melksham, that would be a departure from London at 06:53.

Our customer's journeys don't actually start / end at Paddington - they have onward journeys and typically live in the London suburbs. By driving to Melksham if they can, they will save themselves significant time and  hassle at the London end.

e.g. Orpington to Melksham - 2 hours 41 minutes by road, (that's an 06:34 departure for an 09:15 arrival). By train - current departure at 06:22 gets to Melksham at 09:12, in the future with that train gone the 04:36 from Orpington will connect in at 08:15 - following connection not shown until arriving much later.

Current travel plan at the end of a course

train:
Melksham 17:02
Swindon 17:31

train:
Swindon 17:41
Paddington 18:44


Travel plan at the end of a course if the 17:02 is withdrawn

by bus:
Melksham 17:36
Chippenham 17:52

(Cross town walk)

by train:
Chippenham 18:25
Paddington 19:40

The AA's routefinder site gives a journey time of 2 hours 22 minutes for this journey. For a 17:00 departure from Melksham, that would be a London arrival of 19:22.

Courses start at 09:45 and we really can't move that more than a few minutes later in consideration of other customers.  Courses end at 16:45 and once again we've only limited scope for adjustment.

Significantly, most courses run for a period of between 2 and 5 days and  80% of our delegates stay over in Melksham rather than commuting. As from autumn 2006, we'll be offering hotel accommodation in Melksham and we anticipate that the majority of our London delegates will arrive the evening prior to the start of their course.