Comment on December timetables
As this is the "daily update", I'm taking the opportunity to post a press review I've just written about the upcominng timtable and changes. (I was aske about timetables - Melksham specific, then to add any extra more general comments)
Trains / Melksham:
Weekday trains to and from Melksham are unchanged. They remain at the two services per day (round trips leaving Swindon at 06:19 and 18:45 to Westbury and back), so they're still timed at First's operational convenience in what they call "Marginal time" using the train that's borrowed off the Stroud Valley line when it's not wanted there. "Very disappointing indeed" if you would like a quote.
A very great deal of work was undertaken by First Great Western, Wiltshire County Council, and others and draft timetables written in May showed an extra 3 trains a day each way, from Salisbury to Swindon via Westbury, Trowbridge and Melksham at 07:40, 10:30 and 13:30. These service proposals have just been revealed in detail under a freedom of information disclosure, but the disclosure did not extend to giving us the detail as to why the this major improvement was withdrawn before the timetable was finalised.
There is one good piece of news. There's going to be the return of a southbound Sunday service, calling at Melksham in the early evening. This means that residents of Melksham can get back to the town after spending the weekend away by public transport, without having to do a bus dogleg via Bath. It also means that people working for the week in Melksham can get here by train on the Sunday evening and check into their hotel or B&B. Although one extra train a week is a tiny improvement, it is very significant in that First Great Western are providing it without financial subsidy, and over and above the Government's minimum specification level. Good news indeed as it shows a first step towards a more appropriate service.
Other trains: [West Wilts]
The services between Bristol and Westbury have been re-cast to provide a more regular service; until December, the 2 trains per hour arriving at Westbury from Bristol have been within a few minutes of each other, whereas from December they will be more evenly spaced. Overall, a sensible change but like any timetable change it may give rise to specific individual hardships. Alternate trains now head noth from Bristol to Cheltenham and Great Malvern, rather than all carrying on to Newport and Cardiff.
Services to Dilton Marsh are reduced very slightly - that's a major victory as at one point it looked at one point as if the service could be halved. With major house building going in close by Dilton Marsh station, it is sensible for all the services there to be retained.
Although not strictly a timetable issue, First Great Western are loosing 12 of the 2 coach trains of the type used on the Portsmouth to Cardiff expresses in December (they're being transferred North) and they are being replaced by 30 year old Pacers, the first two of which have arrived in the area out of storage in Manchester. The Pacers cannot be used south of Warminster, but may appear much more often in the future on services that travel northwards from West Wilts. Further stock changes will occur in the new year, when the 6 year old Adelante trains used on some services from Westbury to Exeter and London are phased out, to be replaced by 30 year old "125"s. That's not totally bad - the 125 units are dearly loved and have increased capacity, whereas the Pacers are almost universally unliked.
Information:
We're running a forum that covers train services across the First Great Western area - "by a customer, for customers" at
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeeshop
where we've had over 2500 messages posted in the last 6 months.
More specifically for the "TransWilts" via Melksham, the "Save the Train" forum at
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum
now has over 5000 messages posted since it started.
New members very welcome on either forum.
FINALLY ,... There's a public meeting on Tuesday 9th October, at 7 p.m. at the Railway inn, Westbury, organised by the West Wilts Rail User group. Andrew Griffiths, First Great Western's Regional Manager for the area, will be talking on "First Great Western - Progress and Future" and, we are told, there will be plenty of time for questions.
Written 2007-10-03 07:45:26
Available entries ...
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