I live in Trowbridge and I am likely to be using the extra rail services from December, although to be honest they will more likely be useful to me for leisure purposes than commuting, mainly due to cost factors.

I currently commute from Trowbridge to Swindon each day. To begin with I did this by car, but to be honest I hated it, far too much hassle. I looked around for a direct alternative, and settled on the 49 bus, which is the method I currently use.

Now I don't have any particular gripe with the bus service. The drivers are friendly, it generally shows up on time and it's a lot cheaper than taking the car. The problem is that it's just very, very slow.

I very nearly jumped for joy when I heard about the new services, particularly given that the peak times are ideal, and the journey time reduction would be fantastic. My problems were over.

Or at least, they were until I saw the price difference:

TROWBRIDGE TO SWINDON BUS FARES

Day Return ^5.70
Weekly ^20
Monthly ^76

TROWBRIDGE TO SWINDON RAIL FARES

Day Return ^17.60 (Peak) ^13.90 (Off-Peak)
Weekly ^69.10
Monthly ^265.40

Now, I am happy to pay a small premium for the vastly superior journey time advantage of rail, but I cant stretch to more than double the price on all options.

If I was to drive again (I wont but humour me) then according to the Connecting Wiltshire Travel Shift Calculator, my car costs for Trowbridge to Swindon would be:

Day ^11.54
Weekly ^57.70
Monthly ^250.03

Again, rail is uncompetitive. Is there a specific reason why commuters like us who should really be "low hanging fruit" for the new rail services should be priced off them like this, such as avoiding excessive out-commuting or overcrowding perhaps?

Things are far better on the leisure front, though. I've already booked Trowbridge to London day out for ^28.80 (via Swindon, 2 singles, ^8.17 saving over car) and Trowbridge to Oxford day out for ^21.20 (via Didcot and Swindon, 2 singles, ^5 saving over car).