As from Saturday, we're back to a marketable train service on the TransWilts - and indeed we move from famine to feast for the month of August. With Chippenham->Bath and Trowbridge->Bath both closed, it's very difficult indeed to predict what sort of loadings we'll see on diverted Cardiff - Portsmouth services, and on that basis it's hard to know what to promote and what not. However, we've taken an educated guess that people need to be told that the Weymouth Wizard's running from Swindon and Chippenham this year, as if they don't know about it they won't use it.
There are
FGW▸ / TransWilts / Heart of Wessex posters on display at major stations (i.e. Swindon, Chippenham ...). And the main railway industry journey planner will offer the service just like any other train. But it's 8 carriages on a line which otherwise has just 3 or 4, so it's probable it could do with a bit of further help.
In my TransWilts
CRP▸ role, I've let a few media and other contacts know about the service, and also done a bit of promotion on social media - Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/TransWilts/posts/677100025723376 . And the management stats on that post tell me that it's reached 11,000 people, of whom 1,100 have responded in some way such as clicking through links or adding comments, with 100 sharing it with others (passing it on). It's very hard to know how many of those actions will translate to "bums on seats", but there are certainly people talking about it, and certainly people saying "I am going". We'll see.
To evaluate how it goes on the first day - to help tune following promotion - I'm planning to ride on the train from Swindon. Company / assistance in counting passengers and making sure everyone's happy (great role for those who've helped with counts and surveys in the past) welcome. As a minimum, ride to Westbury ... as a maximum, share the day out.
