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When the additional trains started on the TransWilts in December, we were very much aware that they were timed for robustness, straightforwardness, and to be in the best place at the right time of day.   And also that they couldn't provide all the solutions that everyone wanted.   If the single carriage was leaving Swindon at 17:36, it could hardly be leaving from Westbury at the same time!

Services are running well.  Measured during the old service, 56 journeys a day were made on the Chippenham / Trowbridge section.   Year 1 target was go get that up to 135, year 3 target was 320.   Targets have been smashed - it's typically over 400 on a schoolday and over 500 on a half-term day. 

Growth continues - I've counted up to 98 people on a 1 coach train and the question's "how do we continue to grow".  A very senior person at First had joked with me "fill this, and we'll get another" and he reminded me of this at the Stakeholder's meeting on 26th June - at lunch, before the figures above were presented.  "Oh, yes please ... we'll need it in a couple of weeks" says I, but in all seriousness we are going to be hitting a capacity issue. So - how can we go forward / planned steps based on our experiences

a) It would be lovely to swap the 153 for a 150, but that's probably pie in the sky until IEP runs all Swindon - Cheltenham services

b) One of the queiter trains is the 08:49 from Swindon to Westbury - a shame because it's really at "commuter time" or should be - but it's a bit late.  Run at 08:36 please like on Saturday.   Have I noticed that the freight path that used to be a problem has moved a couple of hours later?   Good news for December?

c) Various schemes were looked at in the lean years for providing additional services within existing stock allocation; in each case they floundered.  There wasn't going to be a peak service, and without it the new services weren't judged to be enough to make for a critical mass. However, that's something to review further.

There's a train that arrives in Swindon at 16:24 from Cheltenham Spa and leaves at 17:54 to go back there.   There's a train that arrived in Westbury at 16:33 from the Bristol direction and leaves there at 17:38 to head back.  In between, the Swindon train sits in the bay and the Westbury train makes a short trip to Warminster and back. 

Suggestion ... a 16:32 or 16:36 Swindon to Westbury or Warminster, and a 17:04 Westbury to Swindon (continues to Cheltenham Spa).  Using the 16:33 to 17:04 turn around at Westbury to provide the Warminster service if timings are too tight on the 16:36 from Swindon, and there may also be scope for a return trip to Frome in there.  Taking a sample day, I saw no freight in the way on the TransWilts. I have NOT checked double track conflicts and crossing movements anywhere - probably less of an issue than a 20 minute freight block.

This will provide relief for the busiest TransWilts service - the 17:36 off Swindon - as there are a significant number of people who wait for that train for quite a while.   The 17:04 from Westbury would fill a very real hole too.

Regrettably, I can's see an easy way to "magic" an 07:40 from Swindon to Westbury, and an 08:25 Westbury back to Swindon :-( ...

d) A swap set may be possible earlier in the day (off peak) too, though I am not going to press that case.   As may a later return trip by the 153 - 21:32 off Westbury and 22:30 ish off Swindon.  If we could get the return bus into the train timetable and online ticket systems, that would be far cheaper and help protect the bus too.

I seem to recall that the 153 attached to the 0813 BRI to SWI then works up to Gloucester where it is detached and sits until needed later in the day (presumably working down to the Bristol area to provide extra capacity in the evening peak?).

If detached at SWI, it could provide at least two if not three return trips on the Transwilts before making its way back to Bristol by mid/late afternoon. In combination with your suggestion to provide an early evening extra service in each direction, it would provide a "near hourly" service through the day.

That's a good thought, John.  The 153 is stabled as an emergency train at Gloucester for the day in case of train failure in that neck of the woods, and past requests to have it used on the TransWilts were denied.   However, I don't know of the relative weight given to the reasons - i.e. "necessary standby" v "wouldn't serve peak" v "looking for better solution for you" so it's worth asking again - bringing it on stage to ask.

You mention detaching it at SWI.   In the past, we've looked at the prospect of getting a late peak TransWilts service into Swindon by running that train from BRI to SWI via Trowbridge or Westbury.   As it sits for 50 minutes in Swindon, it would have time to do that.  However, there's good traffic on it into Chippenham and Swindon and people aren't going to want to drop back the few minutes onto the HST (6 minutes later into SWI) nor change on Keynsham to Chippenham journeys.

If the 153 were detached at Bristol and then ran (in service or even empty) to Westbury / Trowbridge, it could form a train that left Trowbridge at 09:15 for Swindon, filling the 07:38 to 09:54 gap somewhat.  It would be able to get to the Westbury / Trowbridge area in very good time to do this, but couldn't get the single line up to Chippenham until the 08:36 from Swindon (I'm an optimist) got there.     The ideal time for an extra service from Trowbridge up to Swindon would be around 08:30, going up before the 08:36 from Swindon, but there's no way that it would be there in time.
I'm not going for anything exotic like taking it off at Filton Abbey Wood and running it via the Rhubarb Loop and a re-instated Bradford North Curve. ((Rhubarb loop alone would get it to TRO just in time; no recovery allowance and a pack of cards waiting to fall)).  We would then have calls from the people of Bradford-on-Avon for a direct evening peak train from Chippenham to get them home, and calls from Melksham residents for direct Bath and Filton Abbey Wood trains at the other ends of the day - more potential markets ...

Given the vulnerability to the current service if the sole 153 sits down, I'd have thought a better use as a hot standby would be at Swindon or Westbury.

I've played before with the idea of running an ECS from BRI to Trowbridge but rejected it for a couple of reasons:-
1. I think the 0813 is reasonably well loaded  2. it all feels a bit tight particularly when you take into account uncoupling, having to fit into the existing timetable between BRI and Trowbridge, and 3. it would mean the service would be a bit unbalanced. If it runs to SWI as normal it can then head south at around 0947,  then 1147, 1347, before maybe returned to BRI from Westbury for the evening.  This would also break up a 2 1/2 hr gap southbound at lunchtime.

RTT now has times beyond the timetable change, and unfortunately 0849 remains the departure time. Have you had an official view on why the change can't be made?

Yes - the official answer is that the 08:36 path is booked and paid for on Monday to Friday for a "runs as required" freight ... I have a bit more background too, that it may be changeable for a short period but not permanently.   Not sure we could gain anything by that.   We need to watch / log the path and see if the train ever runs  ;) ...

P.S.  We were especially warned last year that times beyond the timetable change were subject to late alteration and just because there was a decent TransWilts service showing wasn't a confirmation it would happen.   I don't know how much of that was a genuine risk and how much was scaremongering ...