Thanks for your replies everyone  are they actually going to demolish all of the sidings at Thingley? It looks like they have taken alot of the track away and the platform inside the shed.

Hi,

How long have the disused carriages been at Thingley Junction? Were they used locally or are they from another part of the country?

Sorry, I didn't realise you had posted that and only a few days before too!

I found this on youtube, it's a video of the reopening of Melksham station, note the double tracks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNTZD2eoybI

I saw that this morning going through Chippenham towards Bristol / Melksham but it must have been around 10 in the morning?

Yeah that would be kool, although it would prob only be used if there was a loop service that services Bristol Temple Meads to Swindon, then Swindon to Bath spa (stopping at Melksham, Staverton instead of trowbridge and then stations to Bath)

Has there ever been any plans to re-double the track on the Melksham line? If they doubled the line between Trowbridge and Chippenham maybe there would be a need to put that track back at Bradford junction?

If they replaced the track, and the track at Thingley Junction it would actually be possible to have trains running in a loop from Bristol temple meads or Bath (If they used the disued platform), for example, services could stop at the following: Bristol temple meads, Keynsham, Bath Spa, Freshford, Bradford-On-Avon, Melksham, Corsham (if it was re-opened), Bath spa.

Yeah it sounds like an excuse and suggests there may have been another reason. It doesn't make sense to remove a significant part of track just because they forgot to include it in plans for resignalling. On the other hand, if they did forget to include it during resignalling it's just another example of the shoddy standards when it comes to maintaining and improving the railway network.

Hi,

I was wondering, when and why did they remove part of the line at Bradford Junction? If it was still there it would be possible to get from Bath and Bradford-on-Avon to Melksham.

If your not sure of where this location is click the link to view Google map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=melksham&ie=UTF8&ll=51.338521,-2.211127&spn=0.012279,0.029011&t=h&z=15
(Google maps shows that the line is still there, click on satilite view and you can see the removed line)

Also, at Thingley Junction there was a line that would allow services to run between Melksham and Corsham:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=thingley+junction&sll=51.338521,-2.211127&sspn=0.012279,0.029011&ie=UTF8&ll=51.43226,-2.142978&spn=0.012254,0.029011&t=h&z=15

Here is the petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/corshamstation/

Reopening the third platform at Chippenham, and reopening Portishead and Corsham would be good but are they actually going to do that?

Thanks  No, where is the petition?

I have created two e petitions to reopen Corsham station and Wootton Bassett station. I believe there was a campaign a few years ago to reopen Corsham station but can't find anything except past news articles on the net, and the same for Wootton Bassett station which there was also talk about reopening.

I think Corsham and Wootton Bassett would be used as much as Melksham station if not more since they are on the main line, however it is unlikley that express services would call at them but if they were reopened maybe it would increase the need for the Bristol to oxford service since local trains like those that call at Melksham would be calling at the two additional stations.

How would the reopening of these stations affect services calling at Melksham?

Here are the petitions

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/corshamstation/

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/woottonbass/

What does everyone think of the blog so far?

That information for Melksham is brilliant  Thanks for looking that up. I am just about to create the Melksham page, if anyone has any suggestions or if I have made a mistake with reference to any information please let me know and I will correct it.