What happens if you turn up a station, presumably unmanned, and the train is cancelled?
How do you make your journey?
In theory the passenger information point will tell you what's happening, and that will be either that the train is cancelled and when the next train is due (in the case of stations with a reasonable service) or that the train is cancelled and that a bus will be running instead in the case of stations like Melksham, as it's not reasonable to expect customers wait from 07:17 to 19:50 for the next train
In practise it sometimes works that way, but at other times a train that is due simply disappears from the system and all the message system tells you is that there is no train due in the next 99 minutes. What then?
Some people wander off in disgust; others call up taxis, or for lifts, or walk off to the bus stop about 800 yards away to await the hourly bus (this option leaves them well over an hour late on a 25 minute journey to Swindon).
The recommended option is to the phone.
As there is no public telephone at Melksham Station, First Great Western Assume than everyone in Melksham who uses the train has a mobile. Call the National Rail Enquiry line and they should help you. You may need to point out (as I have) that you don't like the idea of waiting from ten to eight at night until quarter past seven the next morning. When pressed, they will usually contact
FGW▸ (the people on the number for assistance at the station don't actually work for FGW) and FGW will get something such as a bus or taxi laid on quite quickly - you'll usually be on your way within an hour of the time that the cancelled train was due to call ... although your journey will be slower as it will be by road, and you may have a further delay as you connect into a running train somewhere else.
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