Great Western Coffee Shop

I travelled on the 09:20 from Melksham this morning ... and it was noticeably busy with people joining at Melksham compared to the norm ... indeed it was so busy that by the time we got to Chippenham, the conductor still hadn't got around to everyone to sell them their tickets.

Which goes to show that, come an appropriate service, some sort of ticket selling facility will be needed at Melksham.   After all, what other town of 25,000 has a station, but no way of buying a ticket for the trains that call there?

Marlow

Hmmm ... thanks.  Not even a PERTIS machine?  Looking up Marlow, I get a population of around 14,000 - but that's likely to be about ten years old (I really "can't wait") for the 2011 census to be published to help with up-to-date comparisons.

No PERTIS, the population I get is (@2002) is 5250 which knowing the town is closer to its size

It is a good problem to have. Hopefully the issue is flagged up to fgw big wigs that they should get a machine - not aware of this particular route but is there any chance of people being able to get off the train at unbarriered stations before the guard gets round to sell them a ticket?

North of Melksham, No. Chippenham in the morning has a 'human gateline' which I myself have fallen foul of after not being able to buy a ticket when boarding at Trowbridge (Queued up for 20 minutes and an elderly lady was enquiring about tickets to Stansted in 2 months time right in the morning peak!! The worrying thing is that the staff didn't know (but have since been reeducated to the fact) that there was a train via Melksham and seemed to think I should've changed at Bath ;)

South of Melksham, sadly it's only too easy. Trowbridge ticket office has a habit of closing at short notice due to "Staff Shortages" But south of Melksham the nearest Gateline'd station is Probably Salisbury :( (Westbury has been occasionally known for a human gateline but this is rarely done)

Unfortunately also there as some trains which might as well be designated 'free trains' simply because ticket checks are never done and staff seem to want to have a social in the back cab (I'm going to get shot down for that, but it's only too common from my experience) Shockingly, recently I was told by a guard not to buy tickets for a particular train because: "No-one else does and it's not fair on you, but means I have to check everyone else's if you ask to buy one!" In some cases I can understand why they said that, because it is a train often filled with drunks who take great pleasure in getting nasty if they want to, so I guess there is an element of safety there... :-\ :-X

It's also worth looking at the ticket prices from Frome to Chippenham which I assume are set based on the legacy of Wessex Trains Days when trains ran via Melksham more regularly. Because the Frome - Chippenham tickets are cheaper than Frome - Bath Spa. Bar 2 exceptions, you can now only get a train to Chippenham via Bath Spa ;) </barmy>

It's very rare that I get on at Melksham and don't meet the Conductor, thank goodness. Typically (s)he greets the passengers with a cheery smile, waves them to and through whichever door(s) are opened and come round to sell or check tickets just after the train's on its way.  And usually (thus far, for begnign travellers), the conductor does have time.  But there are ticket issuing matters to consider for the future, and now - when we're looking forward to a much more appropriate and so much more used service - is a good time.

On the immediate issue of the day I was talking about, advise from the Conductor was "tell the train manager on the train you change to that I didn't have time" as we were held up anyway and getting on the Bristol service at very short headway. And I'm sure that would have worked had we seen him/her, but we didn't.  The line at the "oops, I forgot to buy my ticket" line at Bristol was long, and legitimate, rule-following passengers should not have to queue at the end of their journey for a long time, adding delay minute to them, and then have to talk in such a way that they feel presumed guilty of not getting a ticket before travelling until they give reasons which convince the ticket folks that there's a sporting chance that they're in that line for a legitimate reason.

Looking forward ... to when not 7 but 28 people are on average joining each train at Melksham ...

a) If someone can sort out the fares mess in such a way that tickets can be issued quickly, that would be a wonderful help.
b) If tickets can be sold as e-tickets in some form (print yourself, on mobile phone, or on oysterish card / credit card that can be scanned / swiped), that would be a wonderful help
c) A ticket machine at the station would be wonderful.  It would also save the farce of being able to buy advanced tickets a day or two before, but then having to make journey to Chippenham, Westbury, Bath or B-o-A stations to collect them before making your journey from Melksham
d) A person selling tickets at Melksham ... a formal manned ticket office is probably too much of a pipe dream, even though much smaller towns in Wiltshire have them. But there are other ways.

Also looking forward, I would suggest a proportional change in the metrics of the average journey, so that the average ticket sale time per traveller even under the current system would drop.   Much more on season tickets, much higher proportion of experienced travellers, increase number (but lower proportion) of really whacky long-distance stuff.