I'm told that the income from the Northern section of the TransWilts service is only 120k per year - at least, that's what Anne Snelgove MP has been told and has relayed to her constituents. And that figure's been used (I believe) as part of the cost justification for the current massacre of services.

My own annual income estimates for the service are between 500k and 600k, and I calculated that as follows:
        Number of journeys: 109,000 (figure from First)
        Average journey price: 5 pounds
So estimated income - 545,000 pounds.  My journey count does NOT include travellers on Britrail passes, Severn to Solent Rover tickets, etc, but then my 5 pound fare average may be slightly high - it probably balances out, so my 500k to 600k is realistic.

Where does the figure of 120k come from?   I haven't see any justification, but I can reach that figure in 2 ways myself:

a) By considering ONLY journeys that start or end at Melksham and ignoring all other traffic - Swindon to Trowbridge, Chippenham to Salisbury, etc. 27,000 journeys at around 5 pounds each DOES come out quite close to 120k

b) Under the ORCATS scheme for allocating revenue to operators where there are multiple operators, I understand that Wessex trains received well under a half of the Westbury - Swindon revenue in pre April '06 days, as it was deemed that most of the traffic went via Bath - a historic left-over from the limited timetable prior to 2001. Take old traffic figures of 60,000 journeys a year, assign only 40% of it to the line, and with an average 5 pound fare - guess what - 120k.

I consider that both of these income calculations are distorted as they evaluate a part of the income, and not all of the income.