The Greater Western RUS (Route Utilisation Strategy) evaluted an additional hourly service on the TransWilts, and came down in favour of it.  I am very very glad of the word "additional" ...

It's oft commented that trains from Swindon at 06:16 and 18:44, and from Westbury at 07:02 and 19:35 are a pretty crazy service pattern when viewed against the travel needs of the corridor.   And I totally agree with thos comments.   But I'll also go on and point out to you just how much those services, at seemingly peverse times of day, are used.  If you were to replace that timetable with a new, hourly one that didn't actually provide a service within a short time of each of the current services, then you would immediatly risk alienating and loosing the existing customer base - not a sensible thing to do.

Why am I posting this?  "isn't it great that there's now an hourly service each way from Salisbury to Exeter".  Yes - but a phone call from Gillingham yesterday pointed out to me how - even in such a scenario - there are looser.  Buses haven't been retimed to connect with trains properly, trains - especially those against the majority flow - have been retimed, and there are people who now have to leve home up to an hour earlier to get to work or college on time.

Lest we forget - so much is about end to end journeys.  A poll I'm running across FGW territory at the moment is giving early indictions that the overwhelming majority of people travelling by train have to connect in from other transport, or out to other transport, or both - and it's the integration that matters.

Let's look forward. Let's look to trains arriving in Westbury every hour from Swindon and from Bristol, and swapping passengers both ways.   One train goes on to Salisbury and perhaps beyond, the other goes on to Frome and usually beyond, be that final destination Radstock or somewhere towards Weymouth or even Minehead.