TransWilts has aspirations to join to Three Rivers in a through service

Three Rivers has aspirations to join to TransWilts in a through service

Between Salisbury (at the north end of Three Rivers) and Westbury (at the south end of most TransWilts services) you have the ONLY section of the Portsmouth - Cardiff line where the regular services is less than hourly ... you have a "curious and perverse" local service there (that's what the local parish councils called it).

I left Southampton on the 09:10 this (Bank Holiday Sunday) morning, bound for Salisbury
41 passengers on leaving Southampton Central
1 on and 0 off at Millbrook
1 on and 0 off at Redbridge
3 on and 11 off at Romsey
0 on and 1 off at Mottisfont / Dunbridge
1 on and 0 off at Dean, so
35 passengers remained into Salisbury

Arrived Salisbury at around 09:47 .... could have carried on at 09:55 to Warminster (10:15), Dilton Marsh (10:22) and Westbury (10:25), then formed the 10:30 to Swindon - 10:44 at Melksham.   

As it was, it headed back towards Romsey at 10:15. Onward travel via connection to Westbury and then to Melksham. Connection arrived at Melksham at 12:44.

That's just a "snapshot" illustration of how things aren't joined up - the ongoing connection from Salisbury was a packed 5 car formation (and an earlier service backing it up would have been useful!) and called at Dilton Marsh (yes, needs a better service but - please - wouldn't it be sensible for that to be the shorter and more local service!).

All in all, good illustration of why these should be joined up.

I am starting to log any Three Rivers journeys I make here to provide a knowledge base.   Nick and Mark of their CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) know much more than I do about their flows, but it's still useful for us all to be aware all the way up.



Edit note: I have corrected a few of grahame's trademark minor typos, purely in the interests of clarity. CfN.