Melksham Rail Link - bus service

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Idea - take the town minibus, first thing in the morning, and run it round the outer areas of the town furthest from the station, then to the station to connect with the first commuter train.  Make a second circuit for the second commuter train.

In the evening, when it's finished its normal runs, take in to the station and pick up anyone who's arrived off the first return commuter train and take them back to their nearest outer area stop.  Repeat the process for the next two trains.    If the train's late, make the bus wait for it to arrive!

Result?  Journey time, door to door, of 50 minutes from home to work in Swindon. No need to take the car ...

The idea is being tried out under LSTF^▸ (Local Sustainable Transport Fund) - it started on Monday of this week.    Here's the interim publicity that the Community Rail Partnership has put together ...
http://atrebatia.info/melkshamraillink.pdf

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

This sounds very much like the Charlbury Railbus service on the Cotswold Line. This is under threat of cut by Oxon C.C. as part of the transportation budget cuts under the current contract reviews.

[Lee]

What's your feeling, Andrew1939? - Will the Charlbury Railbus survive?

[grahame]

Progress report ... this morning (Monday, bright and sunny, not near a public or half term holiday, winter)

06:50 from Falcon way.
1 joined at Mitchell Way (Bowerhill)
1 joined at Halifax Road (Bowerhill)
1 joined at The Spa
All travelled to station

07:20 from Falcon Way
1 on from Falcon Way (Bowerhill)
1 joined at Skylark Road / Thyme Road
1 joined at St. Andrew's Church, Melksham Forest
1 joined at the Pig and Whistle, Melksham Forest
1 travelled to The Bear, 1 to Asda and 2 to the station

46 on 07:48 train when it arrived in Melksham
3 got off and 7 got on, making  50 passengers to Chippenham
That's 53 passengers using the train on the Trowbridge / Chippenham section

[Lee]

On the 0720 bus, specifically of those who got off at the station, where did they get on the bus?

Also, do you have any new info regarding the ultimate destination of rail passengers transferring from the bus at Melksham station?

[grahame]

On the 0720 bus, specifically of those who got off at the station, where did they get on the bus?

Kingfisher Drive on Bowerhill, and at St Andrew's Church in Melksham Forest

Also, do you have any new info regarding the ultimate destination of rail passengers transferring from the bus at Melksham station?

Sorry, I don't.   Was getting an update on how things are going from the driver, and how to help them help it be seamless for passengers.

[Lee]

And what was the drivers insight on those issues?

[grahame]

Monday, 14th April ...

4 on the bus at 06:55 when it arrived at "The Spa" from Bowerhill ... I got on there and then anothee passenger joined at Thyme Road / Skylark Road.  On time - in fact a couple of 1 minute stops to let time catch up, and so to the station with all six passengers, of whom five were for the train.

6 people got on the train at 07:20 (yes, that's right - the bus accounted for most people!) and none got off - 39 people on the service when it left Melksham.  Somewhere between a dozen and fifteen left the train at Chippenham and more joined - passengers to Swindon = 40.

Note that both trains were CAPed at Swindon when they should have been through to / from Cheltenham Spa.  Don't think that made much difference.  But it's the week before Easter and I suspect that does make it a bit quieter (said to have been a favourite week for Dr Beeching's team to take stats to see how little trains were used, wasn't it?) 

I'm commuting to Oxford daily until Thursday; more logs to come

Didcot dance - train from Swindon arrives 3 minutes after Oxford departure, leaving 27 minute wait.  To add insult to injury, a Paddington to Banbury train creaps through the station in the middle of the wait.

Evening ... 19:05 train from Chippenham came in with very few on from Swindon. Left with 18, of whom 5 got off (and none joined) at Melksham.  Three of the five travelled on on the Melksham Rail link Bus - one to Melksham Forest, 1 to The Spa and 1 to Bowerhill.

[grahame]

Tuesday, 15th April

4 on the link bus at 07:20 (for the 07:48 train) - 1 from Mitchell Drive - 1 from The Spa - 1 from St Andrews Church - 1 from the Pig and Whistle

4 off the train that called at Melksham at 07:48, 9 on, giving 41 passengers to Chippenham.  So that's 45 passengers making use between Trowbridge and Chippenham. 

Lots of happy people ... "wouldn't it be nice if"s included a return service at around 16:30 from Swindon, and an extra carriage on the 17:36 from Swindon which was reported "full and standing" recently south of Chippenham by one of the passengers.

My own onward journey to Oxford worked rather better than usual.   Quick connection at Swindon, "only" 15 minutes at Didcot, Oxford on time ... door to door, home to venue, just under 2 hours. Rail journey 90 minutes, versus the 30 (MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) - SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)) + 20 (SWI-DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains)) + 8 (Reverse) + 12 (DID-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)) = 70 that would be offered by a Go-op Westbury to Birmingham service.

18:50 from Swindon in the evening - NOT a through train from Cheltenham tonight, but rather arrived empty and late from Westbury and ran back 7 late.   17 passengers from Swindon. A few off and a lot on (sorry, no count!) at Chippenham. 37 on the train between Chippenham and Melksham, where 9 got off and 1 more got on. So that's 38 passengers making use of the train between Chippenham and Trowbridge.

Alas, just 1 on the link bus ;-( which did wait (correctly) for the late running train.

A reported texted to me tells me that the 19:48 train at Melksham dropped off 3 passengers, collected 3 and had 23 through passengers, making 29 users between Trowbridge and Chippenham.

[John R]

A few interesting points here:-

Note how on two consecutive days  the same train (1850 ex Swindon) loaded at 18 leaving Chippenham on one day and 37 the next. I find that quite surprising for a service that I would expect to have a relatively constant flow of commuters. It shows the need to take several counts to get a good picture.

The last four counts of the 0748 north of Melksham have been 50, 47, 43, 41.  I'm inclined to think the latest one will be slightly supressed by the easter holidays - else it would be a little concerning. However, pax numbers joining the service at Melksham have been 7,7,8,9  so numbers appear to be building slowly.  Taking both rush hour services north and south, it would appear that there are now around 15 northbound (am) commuters from Melksham.

Finally, the texted message provides the first recording of the last northbound train of the day, which loading at 26 throughout makes it the third busiest service, and well ahead of where I might have expected it to be.  That means that we now have records for 7 of the 8 northbound services, and the most recent reading of each north of Melksham total up to 165. Even missing the 1203, we appear to be up to 20 pax per train average. Southbound the latest records of each service sum to 164, so again now north of 20 per train average.

[bobm]

Finally, the texted message provides the first recording of the last northbound train of the day, which loading at 26 throughout makes it the third busiest service, and well ahead of where I might have expected it to be.  That means that we now have records for 7 of the 8 northbound services, and the most recent reading of each north of Melksham total up to 165. Even missing the 1203, we appear to be up to 20 pax per train average. Southbound the latest records of each service sum to 164, so again now north of 20 per train average.

The message by text was from me - having bumped into grahame earlier.  While not wishing to detract from the message, I did note that around 10 to 12 of the passengers appeared to be a "group" back from day out on the South Coast (or South Coast oubs at any rate).  Now while there is no reason to suppose a similar group might not make that trip each day, I suspect today was above average, having travelled on the train before.

One thing I did not with some concern; this is the train which normally continues to Cheltenham.  When we reached Swindon, there was no announcement about replacement buses, or indeed any staff to direct passengers to the buses.

[grahame]

While not wishing to detract from the message, I did note that around 10 to 12 of the passengers appeared to be a "group" back from day out on the South Coast (or South Coast oubs at any rate).  Now while there is no reason to suppose a similar group might not make that trip each day, I suspect today was above average, having travelled on the train before.

Do remember that we have been actively marketing day trips via the TransWilts for the Easter school holidays, and indeed there was a group of half a dozen on the southbound service who had been to Weston-super-mare. I wouldn't be surprised to see similar groups until the schools go back after easter.   This week will in all likelyhood be quieter for business / commuter traffic than a normal week - we're seeing that at the hotel, but with some compensation in these globs of leisure users.

P.S. I don't have the linkage to show that the marketing brought the extra traffic - it could simply be that people are finding out about darned good days out by other means of information dissemination

[grahame]

John R - expect the 19:35 from Westbury to be surprisingly busy tomorrow night too, as I have been helping a large group over the phone with train times for a day trip to Weymouth.   Might be busy on Friday too ...   not so much a quirk of the day, but a move towards leisure traffic building up.

[John R]

Interesting. Are they OK with the connectional times at Westbury, as there would appear to be a rather long wait (55 mins) off the obvious morning train (0915)?

[grahame]

Interesting. Are they OK with the connectional times at Westbury, as there would appear to be a rather long wait (55 mins) off the obvious morning train (0915)?

It would be a much easier "sell" if the 08:49 (Monday to Friday) ran in the timings that it manages on Saturdays - i.e. 08:36 from Swindon ... it's not brilliant, but it will let us tap some of the market.  Sunday connections from 18th May are much better; Saturdays are hampered by the final Westbury -> Swindon train being at 18:48.

There is a real opportunity to have good days out at a reasonable price for people who can't drive and have been faced with expensive taxi or bus runs, and are very used to awful connections, walks across Chippenham, etc.   Even with 55 minutes to wait, the days can be "quality" ones