Text used yesterday for "Santa Trip" attendees ...

We arrive in Swindon just before 10 a.m. giving you time in the town for shopping and a long lunch. Please arrive back at the station soon after 3 p.m.; the train leaves at 15:19 for Chippenham and Swindon, and Santa will be visiting all the children booked with our party on the train before we reach Melksham about half an hour later.

If you have been on the Santa trip in previous years, you'll have noticed that our timing is different this year and we're not able to offer you the choice of a long or short time in Swindon. This is because the First group (in association with the Depratment for Transport and the local transport authority - Wiltshire County Council) have WITHDRAWN more than half of the trains on the line, leaving trains from Melksham at just 07:17 and 19:50 on weekdays , and 09:22 and 19:50 on Saturdays, returning from Swindon at 06:18 and 18:42 (Monday to Friday) and 15:19 and 20:52 (Saturday). This is in spite of a rapidly growing usage in previous years, and huge growth in Melksham and other towns along the route. The new times are inappropriate for almost everyone (except the train company [First Great Western], for whom they are operationally convenient) and as a result most of the patronage has been lost, with passengers without cars having little option but to us a bus which with changes takes three times as long, or give up their journey. It's madness, and the major players now admit they have gone one step too far in these cuts.

The changes do not just effect the Melksham to Swindon journey which only accounts for a small proportion of the tickets sold for the line; it also effects many other journeys such as Chippenham to Salisbury and Trowbridge to Swindon. Those are the four largest towns in Wiltshire; Melksham is fifth.

A campaign is underway to get the service restored to an appropriate level, and we now have at least a reasonable chance of having it succeed.

Have a great day today and many thanks for joining us!