I am a long time lurker but first time contributor!
Welcome - as a member and a contributor.
It seemed a bit odd having a service that 'turned round' at Melksham.
Indeed it did.
Ever since the 2011 summer Sunday morning trial, there has been an aspiration for an all year service on Sunday mornings, early enough for people to go out for the day / reach Sunday jobs. The original target of that trial - for just seven Sundays - was to get lots of passengers to travel from Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham for a day out at the seaside, and to provide evidence as to whether or not the communities could actually persuade people to use the train. Only by a bit of gentle nagging and an application of logic was the up service run for passengers and stopping along the way, rather than being an empty train movement; we were given that with a somewhat begrudging "I suppose we may as well see what it will do" ... and actually it rose to a peak of 69 passengers into Swindon that summer. Talking with these passengers, many of them were not on seasonal journeys and case was made (very unexpected in some quarters!) for a northbound train off Westbury as early as 07:30.
Behind the scenes prior to the
LSTF▸ grant trial from December 2013 to December 2016, strong inputs had to be made to ensure that any Sunday service at all was provided, as it was felt in some quarters that poor Sunday figures could drag the whole thing down. And even further inputs needed to have the earlier train in summer. We were refused the earlier train outside of high summer because of the line being closed / not available until mid to late morning.
In the last few years, winter Sunday services and Sunday morning services have been improved / started across many lines, and we have / had TransWilts data that suggested that such a service was not only wanted but would be used here. However, the issue remain(ed) of line availability. For this Autumn, permission was given up to and including the single track and as something of a gesture / move in the right direction,
GWR▸ planned a short tun from Westbury to Melksham as being "all that we can do
while the main line is having major works done". Much as I love Melksham, and much as my heart would like to hear announcements for the "09:00 Melksham train", my head told me this was going to be a very difficult one to bring reasonable passenger numbers on board. I was slightly less worried than I might have been, being assured that it wasn't going to be an expensive service to run, and that low numbers would be understandable.
So - seeing last minute poster changes saying that it's going to Chippenham as from today (so last minute that some posters including the one at Melksham Station still say it's turning back there!) is massive good news. With Swindon accessible via connections this autumn (and perhaps direct in the not too distant future) this now gives us a 7 day, all day service - and those people who live in West Wiltshire who want to take Sunday retail jobs in Chippenham and Swindon can now do so.
I am not sure that the signalling permits it. The Melksham single line is operated by Track Circuit Block, but the section in the middle is supplemented with axle counters. At the southern end the axle counter is located at Staverton near to the River Avon bridge, and at the northern end near to Catridge Farm between Beanacre and Lacock. This is to allow lengthy trains to reverse immediately behind the signals at either end of the single line without fouling the axle counters. With Melksham being in the middle of the axle counter section, it is my understanding that the train would have to pass both sets of counters to confirm that the train is complete and allow the signalling to function correctly, although I am happy to be corrected. Running the train through to Chippenham overcomes this and at the same time provides a much more useful service.
I suspect you're right (that 100% assurance and detail tells me you know a bit about this
) in which case the arrive of the service to Chippenham a bit earlier than we were told was possible might be a fortunate piece of operational convenience.
I have indeed seen trains turn around at the end but not in the middle of the single track, even including one that got up to Thingley and then turned back; that may have been a special case due to an operating issue though.
Click on the map to explore geographics
