What a difference a decade makes

[whole diary]

[grahame]

We started the decade with around 3,000 journeys per annum, and with Save the Train as the online campaign group for TransWilts services, looking to save the vestiges of the service that had been cut back a couple of years earlier. I have no web site link for you for the "Melksham Railway Development Group" ... there wasn't a site. i

We have ended the decade with around 75,000 journeys per annum, with the Melksham Rail User Group providing local encouragement and support - a rebranding of the Development group - but very much a "station friends" group, working as partners with the rail industry and local CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) which grew out of "Save the Train" and is online {{here}}

Although passenger journeys have risen from 3,000 to 75,000 in a decade, that's based on a service that's risen only from unusable to "thin and poor". Gaps of 2 and half hours (10:01 to 12:32) in a service for short journeys such as Melksham to Swindon (25 minutes) or Trowbridge to Chippenham (19 minutes) put most people off using the service.  Step up to a reliable hourly service, and passenger numbers at Melksham by then end of the next decade should exceed 300,000.

2009:


2019:


2029?:

[bobm]

I started the decade with no knowledge of the forum.  Now it’s a part of my daily routine and has provided regular new knowledge and given me new friends - some just on line, others in real life, many probably for the rest of my life.

Here’s to the next ten years. 

[TonyK]

I started the decade with no knowledge of the forum.  Now it’s a part of my daily routine and has provided regular new knowledge and given me new friends - some just on line, others in real life, many probably for the rest of my life.

#MeToo. Highlights included a ride to Portbury Docks, seeing four tracks through Filton Bank again, and having bobm and bignosemac help me mark retirement with a couple of small drinks.

[Reginald25]

Wiltshire Council's press release (extract)
£150m to be invested in two major road improvement schemes in Wiltshire

The government has announced its support to fund two major road improvement schemes in Wiltshire, the A350 Melksham bypass and A338 at Salisbury.The Melksham scheme, which is estimated to cost around £135m, will bypass the town centre and in turn resolve a critical pinch-point on the A350, improving north to south connectivity throughout the Western Gateway in the south west. It is a part of a package of road improvement measures that will improve the northern section of this north-south route.

As well as reducing journey times and delays, the scheme will provide significantly enhanced walking and cycling between Melksham town centre and the railway station and other parts of the town. 

I'm sure 10 years ago this announcement (which is much welcomed) would not have referenced the railway station.

Edit ... removed BobM as the person being quoted and the original date as being 31st December.   I suspect that this announcement is today, and even BobM doesn't have a six week crystal ball or other main powers!

[Clan Line]

Wiltshire Council's press release (extract)
£150m to be invested in two major road improvement schemes in Wiltshire

The government has announced its support to fund two major road improvement schemes in Wiltshire, the A350 Melksham bypass. The Melksham scheme, which is estimated to cost around £135m, will bypass the town centre and in turn resolve a critical pinch-point on the A350, improving north to south connectivity throughout the Western Gateway in the south west. It is a part of a package of road improvement measures that will improve the northern section of this north-south route.

.............."will bypass the town centre" ..........does this include the new, improved £3M Farmer's Roundabout ??
.............."improving north to south connectivity throughout the Western Gateway in the south west" ..........sorry, did I hear someone mention the Westbury bypass ?

[grahame]

Wiltshire Council's press release (extract)
£150m to be invested in two major road improvement schemes in Wiltshire

The government has announced its support to fund two major road improvement schemes in Wiltshire, the A350 Melksham bypass. The Melksham scheme, which is estimated to cost around £135m, will bypass the town centre and in turn resolve a critical pinch-point on the A350, improving north to south connectivity throughout the Western Gateway in the south west. It is a part of a package of road improvement measures that will improve the northern section of this north-south route.

.............."will bypass the town centre" ..........does this include the new, improved £3M Farmer's Roundabout ??
.............."improving north to south connectivity throughout the Western Gateway in the south west" ..........sorry, did I hear someone mention the Westbury bypass ?

 

I'm writing up some thoughts on public transport for the neighbourhood plan team today - coming somewhat as a follow up to the bus changes documented in other threads, but looking to make sure that stuff is forward looking.  And those thoughts - an update on previous well-shared thoughts with the transport lead on the plan - do take into account a bypass to the east of Melksham. 

The present "bypass" bypasses the Town Centre - however, it does run through the linear village of Beanacre, and the northern 'burbs of Melksham where widening beyond one lane each way through a built up area would be rather difficult.   And it does bisect the walk - of 7 or 8 minutes - from the Town Bridge over the river to the station, making the station feel "out beyond".  Yes, it does also o through the Farmer's Roundabout which has been clogged this week with the Town Bridge half closed, and Bath's heavies diverted along this way due to a weight limit imposed on the link between the A46 and A36 there.

To the north, you have Chippenham, bypassed (and with its origins bypass absorbed into the town and a further bypass added) and the M4.   To the south you have Trowbridge, county town, growing and growing and the A350 being already the best road to the motorway, but struggling.

Indeed to the south of there you have pinch points at Yarnbrook and Westbury before you hit the Warminster bypass; from there the A36 heads off south east to Salisbury and Southampton and the A350 carries on into Dorset and Poole.

I don't think that "Westbury Bypass" as an idea is going away any time soon.   You have one element suggesting that so much work was done on an eastern route passing between the town and the White Horse that it should be carried on with, and another element suggesting that a link road for the West Wilts Trading Estate area broadly alongside the main railway line makes the most sense - but it strays briefly into Somerset, which is not part of the Western Gateway.

[Clan Line]

I don't think that "Westbury Bypass" as an idea is going away any time soon.   You have one element suggesting that so much work was done on an eastern route passing between the town and the White Horse that it should be carried on with, and another element suggesting that a link road for the West Wilts Trading Estate area broadly alongside the main railway line makes the most sense - but it strays briefly into Somerset, which is not part of the Western Gateway.

Even if you ignore the county boundaries, a quick look at a map shows the differences between the two options for bypassing Westbury. The "Eastern" route along the lower part of the White Horse escarpment is (relatively) level, it is well drained and has little existing infrastructure to be "overcome".
The "Western" route is a maze of waterways, ponds and, of course, lots of railway lines - and is not particularly level in the Warminster direction. This lot, of course, could be bypassed itself, then the Westbury bypass would become the Wiltshire bypass   
Cost wise the Eastern route wins hands down - even with having to provide a spur road into the West Wilts Trading Estate.

Another option could be to build a new road from Yarnbrook Roundabout across country to join up with the A36 between Standerwick and Black Dog Hill. Costly - but would be an elegant solution. But, with planning and money well advanced for "improvements" at Yarnbrook can't see that getting much consideration ....

..............hang on - I've got it.......how about a tunnel ? 

[grahame]

Another option could be to build a new road from Yarnbrook Roundabout across country to join up with the A36 between Standerwick and Black Dog Hill. Costly - but would be an elegant solution. But, with planning and money well advanced for "improvements" at Yarnbrook can't see that getting much consideration ....

..............hang on - I've got it.......how about a tunnel ? 

I think you've been looking at http://www.passenger.chat/22426

[Clan Line]

Another option could be to build a new road from Yarnbrook Roundabout across country to join up with the A36 between Standerwick and Black Dog Hill. Costly - but would be an elegant solution. But, with planning and money well advanced for "improvements" at Yarnbrook can't see that getting much consideration ....

..............hang on - I've got it.......how about a tunnel ? 

I think you've been looking at http://www.passenger.chat/22426

For some reason I seem to have missed the last couple of posts in that thread.............