Why does this page exist?

This page is brought to you by the Save the Train team who are campaigning for the restoration and retention of an appropriate train service linking the major population centres of Wiltshire - Swindon, Salisbury, Trowbridge, Chippenham and Melksham.

When First took over in April, 2006 we had a service of 10 trains a day and usage was growing rapidly. We now have just two round trips a day - from Swindon at 06:18 and 18:45, frequent cancellations, and a buy-on-the-day return fare from Melksham to London is no longer available for under 50 pounds - it will cost you over 100 pounds.

We're told that we have an excellent case for improvements - but all we get at each December timetable change is drafts and discussions that proposed something that is a step forward, and a FINAL timetable imposed that is - well - crap, and even that isn't run reliably!

The blame doesn't lie only with FGW, and we do have some optimism - expand the story ... here

Here are some of the recent / current problems over the FGW area as a whole:


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In order to keep up to date on train reliability, the Save the Train team has learned how to monitor performance ... and the techniques we use for Melksham (population 24,000 - train service cut to 2 a day each way by First) can be applied elsewhere too. We do hope to improve the reporting and statistics from this page in the near future - at the moment, use it with care as we have a few details to resolve and in any case we can only be as good as our sources.

In the table above, we report on 0 different service(s).

What service level SHOULD be achieved? FGW run about 8500 services a week. With a weak target that 99% of them run their complete scheduled route, that means you should see 85 or less cancellations or short workings listed per week on average, which works out at 24 or less such services shown on this page which presents reports that are less than 48 hours old only. With a more reasonable 99.5% target, you should see 12 or less cancellations / short workings in any list above. Current running rate 100.00% (0 trains cancelled or not calling at all scheduled stations) Target running rate 99.5% or better (12 trains or fewer cancelled or running reduced routes)

For further information on First Great Western services, visit their official site. There's also a discussion forum run by passengers (and wannabe passenger).

For contact information, see the Save the Train web site or email the site admin.

This is a test page ONLY and it will tend to present optimistic figures that are showing a brighter picture than really exists.
Known issues:
Only limited status conditions are monitored
Some trains that run past midnight are double-reported
"Planned Cancellations" notified 24 hours ahaed are NOT shown
Failures on route do NOT show

Information from public sources presented by the Save the Train Campaign