At the end of last week, the government refused permission for the Westbury bypass on the A350 - the road which parallels the TransWilts rail line.   One of the reasons given for the refusal was the non-sustainabily of the transport in the proposal.

As it was unlikely that any public transport would have used the new road (rather that buses would still have been routed through the town of Westbury), I was somewhate muted on comments that I made, though I was concerned for extra traffic passing Melksham as I didn't think that the modelling started with the right assumptions, and I was concerned for the cost when compared to the much lower cost (admitteldly for lower returns) of improving the rail service.

I have posted links to the full report, and some more on what the decision means, on my blog:

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/2268_Westbury-Bypass-Refused-looking-forward.html