I hope you make it to Weymouth Graham. Weather in the morning looks nice but not too clever in the afternoon.
Fantastic day thank you; very tired indeed so will write up in the morning. Most I've done for months.
OK ... with the first TransWilts southbound service not running until 13:02, and advise from National Rail and
GWR▸ customer service to be make my own way to Westbury and claim, I switched to the 08:37 northbound and double doglegged via Chippenham and Bath Spa - eventual arrival into Weymouth at 12:22. Journey planner said 12:09 (as you'll see above), but we had to wait for a northbound train at Maiden Newton, then for the pilotman to come across to us. Rather than the Wizard, that was the unit train following it.
Full credit to station staff at Bath Spa (where I went out of the station to stretch my legs) and on the Weymouth train on leaving Bath with regard ticket checks; I had wondered about a challenge on routing - especially as Melksham to Weymouth day return is cheaper than Bath to Weymouth day return.
Reported elsewhere - 99 passengers on the 08:37 when it left Melksham for Swindon (45 having joined there) - hard to know how many had transferred their plans from the previous and subsequent trains that were both cancelled with no information about replacement.
Around 40 on the 12:09 (scheduled time) arrival into Weymouth - 4 car 2 x 150/2. Don't have numbers for the 10:57 arrival there (which I could have been on if the 09:06 ex
MKM» had run) or the 11:45 (Wizard) - that was reported to me by someone who had been on it as "about 200".
Return journey ... on time ex Weymouth on the 17:28 "Weymouth Wizard", with around 128 passengers - part count before Castle Cary, rest of count after we had called there. Far higher density in the front 2 coaches
. It was busier prior to Yeovil - more people off there than on. Started to pick up local traffic at Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon where I left the train (would have taken me over 2 more hours to double back to Melksham as the final northbound TransWilts from Westbury had already left) - noting people's surprise at the train that had turned up - "nice train - what's this about".
Hard work for the train manager - short platforms all the way, some of the
PA▸ points not working. About 6 minutes late into B-o-A ... left there on time as for some reason it's scheduled for a 9 minute stop. My lift (Lisa) and I grabbed a bite then headed back into Melksham - for completeness I called at the station for the 21:34 I would have arrived on.
As reported elsewhere - 21:34 arrival from Swindon was 2 car / 1 in the dark, out of use; -27 + 2 -> 21(ish) (
48/29 )
Melksham Station pitch black - really need the lights switching on for Saturday evening now that nights are drawing in. Personal view is that there's a significant risk of someone doing themselves serious damage by falling off the platform as the edge can't be seen ... would love to see the risk assessment; perhaps the train's headlights, the slow approach, and the fact that people clear the platform before the train leaves reduces the risk to an acceptable level?
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