Do you wonder why the service is only performing to the level it is when there are engineering works that cause some trains to be replaced by buses almost every weekend?     Personally, I wonder at how well the service has done with a weekday cancellation rate of between 3% and 5%, and a weekend bus replacement rate which is many times above that figure.   

The excuse (sorry, it IS an excuse) that the tracks have to be made better for the future is wearing very thin.  Melksham's future is a 60% train service cut on Monday to Friday, a 50% cut on Saturday and a 66% cut on Sunday, so I don't buy the "better" bit.  And closing the entire Westbury to Swindon section at the drop of a pin is just an operational convenience.   I happened upon an employee of one of the rail companies last night at a meeting on other topics and he was telling me that turing at Chippenham should NOT be an issue - they recon to do it in 11 minutes when they have to.  Funny how the official line is "40 minutes - so no capactity to turn Bristol AND Southampton services" isn't it?