Car park and cafe changes at Melksham

[whole diary]

[grahame]

This is a news page dated 19th July 2020 - latest/current information maintained at https://melkshamhub.co.uk

As from August 2020, the following car parking charges will apply at Melksham Station. From ((here))



Note that parking remains free of charge for up to 30 minutes, and that the car park is no longer reserved for just rail users.

The car park will be operated by Smart Parking  on behalf of TransWilts CIC^▸ (Community Interest Company ) who have taken out a lease on the land on 1st July 2020 from the owners who are Wiltshire Council.  Your car parking fees will pay for the operation and security of the car park and payment of the land lease. TransWilts is a not for profit company and any excess of income over expenditure will be re-invested in the CIC's Community aims.

As part of the TransWilts Hub, a cafe will also be provided https://melkshamhub.co.uk/hub-cafe/

We can’t wait to welcome to you the community Hub Cafe. The cafe will be located in a former commercial depot building. So bear with us while the interior undergoes its restoration. The cafe will offer a pleasant place to eat, drink, chat or wait for a train. It will have a much-requested toilet and on-screen departure information.

We are interested to hear your thoughts on how the café could operate. Are you a Café Operator who would like to run the venue? How about the Hub being run by volunteers? That would be wonderful. If this could be of interest please check out the Volunteering page. In the meantime, we are contacting established rail community cafés and station café operators. We hope we can learn from their experience to make the cafe the best it can be.

timeline ...  September/October 2020: Refurbishment and fit-out followed by opening by new café operator.

Construction of the current south car park at Melksham Station was funded by the LSTF^▸ (Local Sustainable Transport Fund) grant from central government about five years ago - see http://www.passengr.chat/15215 for the sort of things going on at that time. Since then, car parking has been free of charge - in many ways "under the radar" and small in nature.  However, with projected growth  - from https://melkshamhub.co.uk/our-plan/

Melksham Station is served by TransWilts on a single-track section of the line. The station survived the Beeching closure but with a minimal residual platform facility. Since the introduction of the TransWilts service in 2015 passenger numbers at Melksham have grown from 11,000 per annum in 2010/2011 to 75,000pa. The platform length has been upgraded for longer train use. With a community population of 30,867 we expect a substantial growth in passenger usage of up to 450,000 by 2026.

to six times the current passenger numbers in the next six years, the car park, cleaning it, and securing in - and getting an income from the land - requires a new model.  As that page explains

The station has been without any facilities. It’s not a welcoming area for passengers. It’s located on an unlit industrial site. Grants awarded in 2016 were used for funding a Station Masterplan. The Depot site opposite the platform became vacant. And TransWilts worked with Wiltshire Council on leasing the site.
Further community grants covered initial costs, legal fees and planning permission. Funding was sufficient by 2019/20 to cover construction costs. Sponsorship by Knorr-Bremse underpinned operating costs in the first 3 years making the 2020 plan a reality.

And having the team described earlier responsible for security and cleanliness should help ensure that scenes like this (pictures this morning) become a thing of the past.  - My "Before" picture, to be followed up in the autumn, I hope, with an "After" picture.


Sadly, volunteer activity through Community Rail on stations is currently limited to light gardening activity ...otherwise volunteers could perhaps clean up locally.  I'm sure there are many other unstaffed stations around at present where there are scenes like this.   Please - if you are a user of the car park at Melksham Station, please help the team there to help you - put your litter in the bin/bag that is already provided.  And, of course, it will be very much easier to keep an eye on the area with Smart Parking's cameras, and the cafe staff on site in a couple of months.

I will admit I do not look forward to having to pay to park if I drive to the station to take the train, but I accept it as something of a necessity - and the waiver we have had as being a luxury that could not be extended.  I would rather park and pay than not have a train to use.   Of course, living on the cusp of walking distance to the station, I might well take to walking and spending my money not on parking but on a cup of coffee and a bacon butty - and in due course as I get more senile, I'll be taking the bus to the station and still enjoying that coffee!

[grahame]

Sadly, volunteer activity through Community Rail on stations is currently limited to light gardening activity ...otherwise volunteers could perhaps clean up locally.  I'm sure there are many other unstaffed stations around at present where there are scenes like this.   If you are a user of the car park at Melksham Station, please help the team there to help you

Delighted to see a report of car park cleaning (by a paid person rather than volunteers who are on a forced break) on Twitter. The piles of rubbish that make what I pictured look puny!.   The problem of stuff left in this car park isn't new - Wiltshire Council cleaned it from time to time the it was in their direct parking portfolio.  The four additions of CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision), ANPR, car park charging and a staffed cafe - three of the four starting in 10 days time will, I'm sure, make a startling difference - and I'm sure that's part of the plan.  Thanks for cleaning up!

[grahame]

From https://transwilts.org/2021/02/18/welcome-to-our-new-cafe-manager/

We are thrilled to introduce you to our lovely new Melksham Hub Café Manager, Siân.
 
Siân started with us this week. She was previously the manager of a local restaurant for 10 years and has a wealth of experience in the hospitality industry.

[snip]

We hope CV-19 restrictions will allow us to open on Saturday 3rd April with a possible ‘soft launch’ on Monday 28th March.

[IndustryInsider]

I hope the new Cafe is well received.

Graham, what sort of percentage of users would be those using the railway station would you guess?

[grahame]

I hope the new Cafe is well received.

Graham, what sort of percentage of users would be those using the railway station would you guess?

I'm glad you added the word "guess" 

There is a surprising amount of other traffic up and down station approach, and other businesses there. Several are motor trade related and major on things like type changes - so there's quite often a number of people hanging around.  Historically - even prior to the service improvements in 2013 - it was common to find people wandering around the station area out of curiosity while waiting.  The tyre place does have a covered waiting room with a coffee machine in it, but out of that use during lockdowns.

TransWilts did a survey last autumn of traffic up and down station approach - mode of travel and whether the people were there for station or other work business.   Although I assisted, taking a number of shifts doing the survey, I have not received a even a summary of the results.   So my answer would be no more than "I guess that a significant percentage of users of The Hub cafe will NOT be using the railway Station"

Looking forward, The Hub will also be hiring out bicycles, and depending on how that is marketed, it may bring people by car to the hub area and I would think there would be a significant cafe business there took on pick up and drop off of cycles.   The car park is no longer "Rail Users Only" - it's now available to anyone, so there's very much a joined up plan here!

[GBM]

Is it 'just' a take-away place, or are there/will there be tables to sit and eat/drink?
If so, a toilet on site as well?

[grahame]

Is it 'just' a take-away place, or are there/will there be tables to sit and eat/drink?
If so, a toilet on site as well?

There's going to be some places to sit inside (whether tables or benches at the side or a mixture I'm not sure) and a loo which is wheelchair accessible.  If it opens while current restrictions are in place, it would be required to initially be take-away only, of course.

Much more space to sit outside on the piazza; as largely a good weather thing, I'm not sure on the timing on that.