Have you heard of Shippea Hill, Lakenheath and Buckenham?

I expect you've heard of Lakenheath - it the place that has the big airbase, just like Melksham had during the last war.  But there are other possible similarities and lessons too.

Lakenheath has a station, and the National Express franchise that won it had to provide a limited daily service for the length of the franchise ... except it had been revised severley downwards after just a year so that it now has a Saturday and Sunday Only service.  Shippea hill has just one train a day to "take children to school" but no matching train to get them home, again contrary to the specification.

These examples show that the promise made that "it's in the specification so it can't be changed" is a lie and that we need to be alert to quiet specification changes ... of which there have already been some for the TransWilts ...

((Picture - Melksham station last night, when I went there to drop off a passenger.   I don't know who had closed the gate - it's something which I never saw in Wessex Trains days, but it's not the first time under First ...))