Daytime Traffic on the TransWilts

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Thursday, 4th June 2015 - a typical Thursday morning?

10:03 Melksham to Swindon
14 joined and 2 left the train, leaving 28 on board
4 joined and 7 left at Chippenham, leaving 25 on board to Swindon
30/16

Car parking:
8 occupied and 11 available in the new car park
1 occupied and 1 available (spaces for rail just outside that car park)
4 occupied and 1 available in the long-established car park
Taxi and disabled spaces both unoccupied
1 extra vehicle parked where there isn't a space!

[grahame]

16:10 arrival into Westbury, 16 got off

16:15 departure was with 7; + 20 - 0 at Trowbridge; -2 + 3 at Melksham; 30/5

These figures from today very much in line with the late May counts, and healthy.

[grahame]

06:12 ex Swindon this morning
8 from Swindon, +7-4 @ Chippenham -1+2 @ MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) -7+9 @ TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains);  28 users in total, 13/3

10:04 yesterday
13 on arriving into Melksham.  -3 +7   20/10

[grahame]

Note - today is the first "normal" Saturday since 11th July - and today is 5th September.

-2+4 ->20 (22/6) / 07:48 ex MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains); 13 off 1 on at CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains)

11:20 arrival @ WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) from SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) - 17 off

11:32 return - 12 @ WSB
-2+10 @ TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains) -> 20
-3+8 @ MKM -> 25; 28/11

[grahame]

16:09 at Melksham today (Sunday) 12 -4 + 5 > 13  17/9
@TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains) -5 + 8

16:30 WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) to SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) left with 84 (yes, eighty four) on board.   Probably something to do with the 11:40 PNZ to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) missing its 15:53 call, rather than all late traffic for the Melksham River Festival!

[John R]

 Probably something to do with the 11:40 PNZ to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) missing its 15:53 call, rather than all late traffic for the Melksham River Festival!

That appears curious. Was there a problem at Westbury that prevented it coming into the station?

Being terribly pedantic (for which apologies), shouldn't the last couple of posts have been in the "weekend traffic" thread?

[bobm]

Points failure at Fairwood Junction.

[John R]

Points failure at Fairwood Junction.

Ah, that's explains it (together with the delay to the service from Weymouth). Thanks bobm.

[grahame]

And, yes, they should probably be in the other thread ...

Should have heard the comments as they got on, full and standing from Westbury ... "What happens when you reduce and 8 coach train to 1".  Not strictly true of course, but at least they all got on and I now have a Sunday "full and standing report" to put alongside the other 6 days.    Those are pretty standard mind - this was an exception!

[grahame]

19:32 ex Westbury tonight ... "just  a normal evening".  24 on from Trowbridge, -7 +3 at Melksham 27/10

[grahame]

Couldn't believe it ... 17 off the 15:53 arrival at Melksham from Chippenham, 2 on and left 25 passengers. So I make that 42/19

Onwards and upwards - perhaps I SHOULD believe it ...

[grahame]

07:20 to Swindon from Melksham ... 3 off and 20 on, then 71 travelling - this Monday morning.  74/23

[John R]

Not bad for a service that was averaging between 50 and 55 last December. It shows that 2 years into the service it is still attracting new business. Some of these may be converts to rail and others may have taken employment in the knowledge that the service exists.

[Lee]

Still need to plug the peak commuter gaps into Trowbridge and start making concrete moves towards an hourly service through to Salisbury though - we are currently missing out on an awful lot of Wiltshire Council passengers that would use the train if they could.

[grahame]

Still need to plug the peak commuter gaps into Trowbridge and start making concrete moves towards an hourly service through to Salisbury though - we are currently missing out on an awful lot of Wiltshire Council passengers that would use the train if they could.

Totally agreed, Lee.    Our initial analysis was that a TransWilts service running as it is tuned for peak flow into Swindon would cover around 65% to 70% of the traffic, with us initially having to say "sorry" to the other 30% to 35%.

On target numbers of 120,000 by year 3 (that's 2016), that means turning away around 60,000 journeys.  However, with current nu,beds for 2015 headed for 240,000, it looks like we're turning away 120,000 journeys - which more than justifies a second class 153 train running in the opposite pattern to the current one - i.e. (Monday to Friday) from Swindon at 07:49, two hourlyish to 16:36.  And from Westbury at 08:35, two hourlyish to 17:15, and with a later evening round trip too.

Amazingly with our figures, we would have reached target even if the one train had run on the opposite flow to the one we pressed for!!!

And, yes, Lee - these should all usefully extend to Salisbury, mopping up the Westbury - Warminster locals.