09:18 from Melksham on Saturday 18/04/09

[whole diary]

[Sion Bretton]

I travelled on this service this service.

On time and was 150

10 passagners got on and 1 off

There were already 10 passangers on the service & at Chippenham 10 passagners got off at Chippenham. Only 1 from Melksham me.

This does show people want to travel from Westbury or Trowbridge to visit Chippenham without going via Bath Spa. 

[grahame]

I travelled on this service this service.

On time and was 150

10 passagners got on and 1 off

There were already 10 passangers on the service & at Chippenham 10 passagners got off at Chippenham. Only 1 from Melksham me.

This does show people want to travel from Westbury or Trowbridge to visit Chippenham without going via Bath Spa.

Chippenham is a rather curious situation.   It's a Wiltshire [unitary] town, and one of the three that are being pushed as major development centres / urban areas by the official new authority's Mantra ... listen to them talk at meetings and it's always "Salisbury, Trowbridge and Chippenham" ... and yet ...

* Apart from two trains a day (at 06:30 and 19:01) there is no train service from Chippenham to anywhere else in the Unitary Wiltshire area.  For towns that are supposed to be being pulled together under a new umbrella (and you could include the next largest two - Melksham and Warminster in the group), isn't it absurd that there's nothing that even resembles a decent, fast public transport service (nor a road that's jam free ... the A350 clogs up around Chippenham iteslf, at Beanacre, North Melksham, Yarnbrook .... and that's even before you get halfway to Salisbury)

* There are no through trains at all from Salisbury to Chippenham - "across the county" even though there's a perfectly good railway line with capacity for them

* Wiltshire County Archives are housed in a newly built facility within five minutes walk of Chippenham Station, and Wiltshire College is even closer.   Both facilities are designed to provide a public service to the whole of Wiltshire and are close to Chippenham station, but are located "behind" the town so that road traffic to them has no choice but to pass through the central shopping area.

* Posters at Chippenham station do not encourage rail travel to Trowbridge or Salisbury - you would have though that the county town, and the county's only city would have appeared on the large sheets of destinations and lists of train times, wouldn't you?   Wrong - they don't!  If you want to find out about these destinations, you have to ask ...

[eightf48544]

I travelled on this service this service.

On time and was 150

10 passagners got on and 1 off

There were already 10 passangers on the service & at Chippenham 10 passagners got off at Chippenham. Only 1 from Melksham me.

This does show people want to travel from Westbury or Trowbridge to visit Chippenham without going via Bath Spa. 

Are you going to monitor this train every Saturday? Because I think 10 people on a barely advertised trian shows that running a train between local towns  at a time people want to travel will attract passengers.

Grahame has asked for support for better services to Melksham perhaps this can be used as a catalyst. Give it more publicity locally and keep a count of passengers. That way you have the ammunition that trains running at sensible times between local centres of population can attract passengers.

I am assunmming that the return trains from Chopenham and Swindon on a Saturday are also at sensible times so making a day trip  a reasonable proposition. Presumably there are no ticket restrictions and you can buy and use what ever the cheapest ticket is now. I'm afraid I haven't a clue what I would call a cheap day return is now called.

 

[IndustryInsider]

There's a short article in the latest RAIL magazine which outlines the campaign. Page 17.

[grahame]

On Saturdays at present, a train leave Swindon at 16:02 making it a good shopping trip.   The second return train of the day leaves at 21:21.

These do provide some good opportunities, but nothing like as good as it was when the return train was at a quarter to six - making it viable for fans of Swindon Town who used to make the train pleasantly full, and also viable for returning shop workers (who has been able to go up on a train at around 8 O'Clock).

Note - the return train time changed a few weeks ago, and changes again in May, which (again) makes marketing of the service darned awkward.