Great Western Coffee Shop

December each year brings timetable changes, and this weekend we have some causes for celebration, some causes for worry and frankly some causes for despair.

For the first time for a number of years, there's to be train service to and from Newquay at morning and evening commuter times, in addition to the middle-of-the-day and mid evening service; has to be sensible for a town of some 20,000!

The worries this year revolve around a loss of rolling stock - with a number of class 142 units being send "up North" / replaced in part by the return of FGW units now that the refurbishment program is supposed to be completed.  And I understand there's a further loss of stock to Arriva Trains Wales as they're pulling back at least some of the units that have been on loan to FGW.  There's a further natural concern that we have another change in the "man at the top" - I'm sure that Mark Hopwood, who we welcome in the role, will do a good job and we hope that he'll continue the progress and steps forward made by Andrew Haines with his improvements on the Cardiff - Portsmouth and Newquay lines amonst others.

Despair comes on the TransWilts. Another town of 20,000 - Melksham - and in addition the line that links the largest population centres in the county (all five of them) - still has a gap in service from 06:15 in the morning until 18:45 at night; it's frankly a service that seems designed to meet the Department for Transport's specification for the franchise, and not the needs of the travelling public. First Great Western took over a rapidly building service on 1st April 2006 and cut most of the trains back to this ridiculous travesty the following December. Draft improvements, along the Newquay lines of filling in the gaps, were prepared for this December but in the end came to nowt;  quite absurd, considering that there's 5000 new homes going in to each of Trowbridge and Chippenham in the next few years, and 1000 already planned / approved underway in Melksham.

So the pictures at the head of "The Coffeeshop" for December have a festive look - and at the same time act as a reminder of the crass service on the TransWilts, a warning to others of some of the silly things that are done to train services if you turn your back for a moment, and to demonstrate that - even with such a service - you can get passengers on the trains.  Think, Mr Hopwood, Mr Feist, Mr West, Mr Crow, Ms de Rhe-Philippe, Lord Adonis and others ... you would really do us a huge service, stimulate the local economy, help the environment ... by "doing us a Newquay" and running that single train back and forth exactly as your own staff (in all three organisations - DfT, FGW and Council) have recommended as being appropriate.

Here are the pictures from the top of the forum for this month ...

Crowds wait to board the ONLY northbound train at Melksham Last Sunday ...
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/xmt1.jpg)

... knowing that Santa Claus would be on board!
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/xmt2.jpg)

There's a lot of people travelling from West Wiltshire to and from Swindon ...
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/xmt3.jpg)

... but between 07:02 to 19:35 every Monday to Friday, the lack of a train forces them on to the overcrowded roads.
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/xmt4.jpg)

The sad sight of a deserted station - but run the train and it will be used!
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/xmt5.jpg)

Melksham would benefit from a Sailsbury-Oxford service, for example.

Not only would you be able to travel from Melksham-Swindon, for connections to Reading, Padd, Cardiff & South Wales, and from Melksham-Westbury for connections to Frome, Bath, BTM, Taunton, Weymouth, Exeter and the South West, but in addition Salisbury would then have a direct service to the GW main line, Swindon would have a direct service to Oxford, and Oxford would have a direct service to large selection of Wiltshire stations.

This would therefore provide an increased service to Melksham, and at the same time make the services more profitable to FGW!

Such a service is possible with the use of 3xclass 180s (but it requires two track from Thingly - Bradford Jn

I would imagine the service could still occur with the current single track from Thingley Jnc-Bradford Jnc.

Im not sure exactly how long it takes a train to travel from Thingley Jnc-Bradford Jnc as I have never used this route before, but lets just say it takes 30mins.

It would therefore be very comfortable to run a 2 hourly service in each direction along this line, without the risk for causing back up delays.

This would increase the service to Melksham dramactically from the 2 trains a day it currently receives.

Im sure our Melksham friends in this Forum would take that quite happily right now!!!   :D

Trowbridge - Melksham 9 minutes
Melksham - Chippenham 13 minutes or so

Thankyou for that information Devon_Metro!

This now means my above post would therefore be easily operational!!

Hi folks ... I'm going to follow up with some brief inputs / comments; much appreciate the thoughts / interets by the way - if my comments look a little cold it's because I've just ridden on a First Bus from a freezing Bath bus station that was 25 minutes late  ;)

20 minutes, Bradford Junction to Thingley Junction, with (currently) sufficient paths for at least our "first step" train every three hours ... and probably OK for a train every two hours.   Big issue is a resilience one, as there are no extra loops anywhere at Trowbridge or Chippenham where a train waiting for the single line can be stored while another (delayed) train comes off it without clogging up one main line or the other.

Service on from Swindon to Oxford would be BRILLIANT ... and, yes, get other traffic too. However, there is concern at running 90 m.p.h. stock from Swindon to Didcot where there are 4 or 5 125s per hour on the track already, and at providing extra seats along a part of a line where there are already an awful lot of seats which aren't crammed to overcrowding.   

The Bristol - Oxford service was (IMHO) doomed when First took over Thames Trains; there was little point in them competing with themselves when the judgement was that the majority of passengers would put up with the inconvenience of a Didcot change. I know that wasn't the excuse given .... but I'm minded of a conversation within the last three months with a very senior FGW person who told me that Trowbridge / Westbury to Chippenham / Swindon tickets had NOT fallen as they expected, with people travelling via Bath, and the guy asked me "why should we consider them in the equation for a better direct service when they'll stand to Bath and change there?" and commercially he has a point.

Very interestingly, First WOULD consider a turnback at Chippenham very favourably rather than run yet more seats up from there to Swindon - "1000 an hour and not filled", and if it could be done robustly (with the extra platform back in use at Chippenham it could, but that is expensive due to track re-alignment) it would be thre preferable option - a 2-hourly Salisbury to Chippenham.

But here's another thought from me.   Who has a depot actually on the lins at Salisbury ... and might they be interested in running a service up there which could extend in due course to Bletchley or Bedford.

Aaah, good point Graham!  SWT's could compete for a Salisbury-Chippenham service too.

On another of your points, imbetween Swindon and Didcot there is a few miles of relief line in both directions where a 90mph service could be placed if a HST was catching it up. 

Perhaps otherwise think of another option, how about a Swindon - Newbury service!

Just trying my hardest for extra trains for Melksham!  ??? :-\

Although I hate PPMs, where is the Stourbridge line's one going? (they have ordered two new ones for the time table change)

I am sure they could rattle a bus a PPM up and down the line a few times!

Come on!

Do they meet crashworthy requirements for the main line?

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a PPM?

I always used the Oxford - BTM service on a regular basis to swindon, and sometimes to BTM, simply because the bus from Oxford to Swindon takes an age to get there.  I prefer direct routes, partly because it's simpler and partly because i seem to have bad luck everytime i travel, and no doubt something would go wrong so reinstating a service from Oxford to Swindon would be brilliant :)

A Parry People Mover. Basically a glorified Tonka Toy.

I do agree with Steve!!  A direct service from Oxford to Swindon, and maybe further into Wiltshire ( e.g Melksham/Trowbridge/Westbury ) would be most pleasing! 

It would take a good 20mins of the journey, as a change at Didcot would not be necessary!  The service could just avoid Didcot altogether by using the "West Curve"!!

Tbh, PPMs shouldn't be allowed anywhere, unless it is either that or closure!

I would have thought they were absolutely fine for trundling up and down a half mile branch line that is completely segregated from the main line. Which is what they will be doing on the Stourbridge branch. (only other service that I could see them being used for is the Cardiff Bay branch when it's heritage dmu finally expires.)

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parry_People_Movers  ;) :D ;D

This service ended in May 2003, a year before Thames' franchise ended. And it was a joint FGW/Thames service anyway. The reason the SRA wanted it killed was that they did not want 90mph two-car Turbos pottering about in the way of 125s, when coal trains heading to Didcot power station already made pathing between Wootton Basset and Didcot a nightmare. That and the fact that passenger numbers on the through trains were always low.

If anyone had ever funded reopening of Corsham and Wantage Road stations, then things might have looked a bit different, since no-one would really want to stop 125s at either place but both schemes are still stuck on the drawing board.

Does anyone know why the 0911 from Parkway to Weston no longer stops at Parson St? Bizarre, and very annoying to those of us who like to use it.

Because it's the loco-hauled set, and thus I think the extra stops will add too much dwell time, given the TM needs to ensure the doors are closed. 

I heard a suggestion of Bere Alston to Gunnislake when the Tamar Valley line re-opens to Tavistock and perhaps beyond  ;D

As well as the whole business of mixing with mainline trains, and speed, they're not a viable option on the TransWilts because they carry far too few passengers. Looking back to even 2004 / 2005 usuage figures, seats would be full, standing would be full ... and that's excluding the following 2 years of dramatic growth.  On the TransWilts, even a 153 with 3 times the seating of the PPMs on Stourbridge would be leaving people being in a year or two!