Great Western Coffee Shop

Baroness Susan Kramer, Minister for Transport, visited Wiltshire today to officially launch the enhanced TransWilts service between Westbury and Swindon.

She arrived at Westbury after being treated to a cabride in an HST to see for herself the flooding affecting parts of the route from London.

After taking the TW service to Chippenham she spoke of her admiration for the work which had been done by a number of people to get the service up and running.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/twlau1.jpg)
L-R Baroness Kramer, Matthew Golton - FGW, Richard Gamble & John Thomson - Wiltshire Councillors, Duncan Hames - MP for Chippenham

I will leave others to give a fuller report on the points she made, save to say she singled out Sion Bretton and Graham Ellis from the Trans Wilts Community Rail Partnership for special mention for the effort which had been put in.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/twlau2.jpg)

Speeches over it was then time to cut the cake - in the shape of a Class 153

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/twlau3.jpg)

Despite the sunshine there was a biting wind and it was good to adjourn to Steamers for a buffet and a chance to talk to the Minister and FGW officials.

One interesting point - Baroness Kramer left for London on the 12:55 from Chippenham and travelled in Standard Class with her entourage.

So Grahame, earlier in the week you were teasing us as to a possible announcement as part of the visit. I've been hunting high and low for news of electrification of the branch, or maybe the reopening of Royal Wootton Bassett and Corsham stations, or even at a more mundane level a ticket machine for Melksham. But I've not spotted anything yet.

Alas, John ... the media only has limited space and current rail interest seems to be centred on an 80m gap in the tracks somewhere south of Exeter ...

Yes, there will be a ticket machine for Melksham  ;D and a series of other improvements there and at other stations along the TransWilts.  And there's also the announcement of the Melksham Rail Link bus service - connecting the residential areas to the south and the east of the town with the station, timed to arrive at the station a few minutes before the peak hour trains to Swindon in the morning, and to leave the station in the evening a few minutes after the return trains arrive.

This can make a huge difference in home to work commutes - here's what the ConnectingWiltshire site currently recommends from the East Melksham development (Thyme Road) to an office block 5 minutes from Swindon Station:
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/oldcommute.jpg)

You'll note options at 82 and 92 minutes, and if you look into the options in more detail you'll find significant sections of walking, and indeed 2 of the three journeys involve taking the bus to Chippenham then the train. Fares will be around 13 to 14 pounds for peak day return.

From Monday, the bus will leave Thyme Road at 06:56 and at 07:26, connect to the train at Melksham Station, and you'll arrive in that same office block at 07:53 or 08:23 - that's a saving of 25 minutes on the quickest of journeys, a guaranteed connection if the evening train is late, and a saving of about 5 pounds on the daily return fare.

There's a preliminary document on the new service at http://atrebatia.info/melkshamraillink.pdf - there should be a full map and integration under Connecting Wiltshire in due course, but for the moment we're using this "stop gap"

That's excellent news.  Thanks for the update.

Press coverage ...

http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/10996085.Transport_Minister_on_board_with_Transwilts_service_launch/

I was expecting the noble Baroness to confer a knighthood on a certain Mr G.Ellis at the very least..... ;D

Smokey is on his bended Knee to very humbly ask that we the people of Plymouth and Cornwall  now  need His Imperial Highness Grahame of Melksham  to kick more Butts and get a Second route up and running from Exeter to Plymouth.

Coming across strongly in Baroness Kramer, and Duncan Hames' speeches were the strong economic case for the service now running, and the working together of the train operator, the department and Wiltshire Council, together with the community's support.  Devon already has an excellent reputation for working together in this way and I would suggest that's a far better approach that kicking butts when (in the medium to longer term) you find yourself having to mend fences and work with the butts you've been kicking.

It was a great event and to meet different people from FGW and WC
The cake was nice as well

Sion

I never got any cake - but the rest of the buffet was good!   ;D

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/11012736._/?


Some other interesting comment in the main article too.   It seems we're not doing too badly considering the truly awful weather conditions we've encountered over the last couple of months.

 It seems we're not doing too badly considering the truly awful weather conditions we've encountered over the last couple of months.

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So dare I risk getting a ticket to go from Melksham to Swindon on Thursday???  I keep meaning to get a Senior Rail Card but under current conditions I'm not sure I'll get much benefit from it until the weather improves!  I hear there's a shuttle-bus from Swindon station to the Great Western Hospital?

YES absolutely. Much of the foul weather news is about other lines - after a couple of floody incidents (from which some lessons were learned) it's settling down nicely to clockwork operation.


http://www.bristol.ac.uk/medical-school/staffstudents/academies/swindondirections.pdf ...

"The Number 16 bus runs approximately every 15mins on weekdays between the train station and the hospital"

The Number 16 goes from stop T in Fleming Way - a short walk from the Railway Station.

http://www.swindonbus.info/images/town_centre_bus_stops.pdf (http://www.swindonbus.info/images/town_centre_bus_stops.pdf)

Ok, thanks very much for that information, guys.