Great Western Coffee Shop

We have a customer travelling from London on the evening on 26th October to our town of Melksham - a journey of about 100 miles.  Melksham has a population of around 21,000 (for comparison - Barnstaple 34k, Exmouth 32k, Frome 20k, Warminster 17k, Westbury 11k - all 2001 census figures that will have grown).

From Paddington, the FGW site offers me departures at 13:03, 17:02 and 17:57, taking 4:37, 2:38 and 2:13 (hours - minutes) at a cost for a single buy-on-the-day ticket of 41 pounds (first two services) or 47 pounds (last service).  This drops to 18 pounds for the first service, or 21.00 / 21.50 for the other two if purchased in advances and my customer can guarantee which service they catch. Here's the detail for FGW's lowest cost offering:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/padmkmviabrs.jpg)

It's a very few miles from Melksham to the town of Westbury - less that half the size.  From Paddington, FGW are offering trains at 17:57 and 19:57, with journey times of 1:29 and 1:30, at 47 pounds buy on the day or 24.00 / 24.50 advanced purchase, know-your-train. South West Trains are offering a direct service to Westbury at 18:15 - from London's Waterloo station - with a journey time of 2:09, and at a price of 27.50 for a ticket bought on the day, or just 14 pounds in advance.

An alternative way of reaching Melksham is to travel the last leg by bus (First operated) - but on a Sunday, the only route that operates to / from a station is from Bath ... where I understand the station is closed for the day. So that's another unpleasant journey.

I'm, frankly, ashamed of the public transport offerings into our town that day and will probably be offering our customer a collection from Westbury.   Or can anyone see any better London -> Melksham public transport option for that evening?

There's a daily National Express coach which leaves London Victoria at 18:00 and arrives in Melksham at 21:05.

I found that on the following website

http://www.trainingcenter.co.uk/travel.html

run by a company named "Well House Consultants"  ;D

How did your customer travel to Melksham in the end, Graham - did you have to collect them from Westbury? Or did they get to you by coach?

My wife and I got back to Westbury after a two-day break in and around E. Sussex on Saturday evening (the 25th) at around 8pm (direct train from Brighton to Westbury - only cost us about ^7 each! Bargain!) and were met with a fleet of coaches ferrying people to stations beyond due to the closure of Bath Spa. Which is fine; a tribute to FGW under very trying circumstances.

However, I have to say - the crew on the ground really need to try to see the broader picture. As well as the obvious priority of moving passengers on to their eventual destinations by bus, they should consider those whose journey actually terminates at Westbury. We were not alone in being held up for 20 minutes or more by coaches blocking the car park exit (and indeed the entrance).

For example, coaches were being met on arrival by a coordinator on the ground at a point which meant that as the coach stopped, the back end completely blocked the car park exit. Conveying instructions to the driver a few feet further forward would have alleviated that.

There were other kerfuffles taking place around us, most of which could easily have been avoided (e.g. simply putting up a notice saying the one-way system was suspended), but I shan't labour the point here: all I wanted to say really is that there's a broader picture which needs to be considered, beyond simply moving passengers off of a train and onto a coach - and at Westbury last weekend that vision seemed to be lost.

Must be an American company judging by their spelling of centre.

50% British / 50% American.  ;)

Paddington to Westbury, from where I collected.

As the customer's train arrived in, the platform was packed ... as there was a Portmouth train due to start from that same platform just a couple of minutes after the Penzance.  The Paddington - Penzance was on time, but apparently (even on a Sunday) there had been more passengers than seats earlier in the journey.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/engwest.jpg)
Picture - as the Penzance train pulls in / Westbury


Yep, it was quite "interesting", wasn't it?  The 20 minute pickup spaces were blocked by coaches dropping people off ... there *were* plenty of free spaces just up beyond but they were all marked "FGW Staff ONLY" ... and I didn't feel like paying for a day in the car park just to collect somebody.

---OOO---

I happened to have a second customer arrive a couple of hourse later too.  He had been give TRAIN times to Chippenham and had emailed me to let me know he would be in Chippenham at 22:28.  "Oh no you won't" ... and rather than have him (on this first ever trip to the UK) transfer onto a coach at Swindon and arrive after 11 at Chippenham, I went up to Swindon.   What a contrast (crowdwise) to Westbury!

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/engswi.jpg)

And what a depressing station at that time of night. Cold, shuttered, only the "R" to "Z" departure board on show ...

I would prefer - I would MUCH prefer - to say to people "come by train to Melksham" but, frankly the service on the options on offer this Sunday were an embarrassment to even offer to my customers that I felt would reflect badly on me (why on earth THIS inaccessible place? ...) had we not oiled the wheels of the final legs of their journeys.   There WAS an option up from Westbury of a bus to Trowbridge, followed by another bus to Melksham.  And from Swindon, that guest COULD have got a bus to Chippenham followed by a prebooked taxi.

It is not un-common on Sundays for services from London to the West Country to be severly overcrowded.