Growth in passenger numbers

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PASSENGER journeys to and from Melksham, served by TransWilts trains, have doubled for the second successive year, making it one of the fastest growing stations in the country.

In the two years since the TransWilts train service was initiated, figures released by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR^» ) show that the station is ranked seventh in the UK^▸ out of 2,540 stations based on their estimated entries and exit numbers.

The TransWilts rail service, which links Swindon and Westbury via Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge eight times each way per day, launched in December 2013.

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The first train of the day leaves Trowbridge for Chippenham and Swindon at 7.10am on Mondays to Fridays, with services about every two hours.

The final return train from Swindon is at 8.12pm on Mondays to Fridays, 9.08pm on Saturdays and 7.55p, on Sundays.

Around 5,000 pocket timetables have been printed for passengers using the service which are available at Tourist Information Centres, libraries and stations along the line.

Keeping the publicity running Cheesy

.. I've often suggested that there would be more work in retaining the service than in regaining it, but it seems to have taken on a life of its own now - which is not to suggest ant reduction in community TLC^▸ . Ironically, the big 'battle ground' to look after the public transport network in the next two years in Wiltshire looks like it's the buses rather than the trains ... more about that next year!

Looking ahead at these numbers (and mindful of a question from CfN on another thread ..) I did some calculations based on passenger journeys per head of population

Chippenham, 35.5k population, 1.9 million journeys, 53.4 journeys per person per annum
Trowbridge, 33k population, 900k journeys, 27.4 journeys per person per annum
Warminster, 17.5k population, 390k journeys, 22.2 journeys per person per annum
Melksham, 24k population, 59k journeys, 2.4 journeys per person per annum.

Should passenger journeys continue to rise to - say - 15 per person per annum at Melksham, then we'll be looking at around 360k journeys per annum - and note that's a very low usage compared to other towns around, even though it's a six-fold growth on what we have at present. A 2 coach train (as opposed to 1 coach), and a service each way every hour (as opposed to every 2 hours) looks like it will be pretty busy when we reach that sort of level.

Portishead ... has a similar population to Melksham. As a terminus, trains will only go one way and that will may make some difference to the stats, but then it will be largely a dormitory town for Bristol I suspect which will skew it the other way. I would not be surprised to see between 350k and 400k journeys - say - 8 years in to the service. That's an educated guess if "they" get it all right.