Wow - the users of that service are resilient!

In spite of Saturday trains being replaced by buses more often that not in the last 9 month, I'm please to report that the trains I used from Melksham to Swindon and bak yesterday were both busy.

Around 2 dozen people were on the train up from Melksham ... half of them got off at Chippenham which I found very significant ... and only a couple of extra people joined us as we were, I suspect, just behind a 125.

On the return trip, there were several dozen people on board when we left Swindon.  We lost a couple and gained many more at Chippenham and I counted about 40 people on the train in to Melksham. The conductor confirmed my count, and told me that this is a fairly typical number.

This train is NOT carrying fresh air!  Perhaps Douglas Alexander will understand that better than Alastair Darling.