West Wilts to Oxford - an impractical rail journey requirement?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I'm in Oxford for a couple of days next week ... travelling from West Wiltshire (Melksham).   

<rant>Now ... you would have thought that with five trains an hour from Swindon via Didcot, and about 4 an hour via or passing Didcot for Oxford, there might be a chance of some connectivity, even though I have a very limited service indeed for the first leg of the journey.  But it rather looks as if the timing couldn't be much worse even if someone set out to make it hard - 07:19 from Melksham connects to Oxford at 09:15, with 23 minutes to wait at Swindon and 27 minutes at Didcot.   Quite starkly put, First are not offering me any way of actually making my journey without using car or taxi.  I did also check the first First bus ... and it gets to Chippenham at exactly the same time that the train calls there. Not exactly an alternative</rant>

Oh well - another road trip by the looks of things.  There's a hefty stick waved to keep private cars out of Oxford ... give me a carrot that provides a practical alternative and I'll use it.


(For anyone new to the journey, it's about 60 miles - so from my train leaving Melksham to arriving in Oxford I would be averaging a princely 31 m.p.h.)

[philvr]

I'm in Oxford for a couple of days next week ... travelling from West Wiltshire (Melksham).   

I just had a look at options for the route on Monday! Thinking it would make a nice day trip. Leaving Melksham at 7:19 arr Oxford 9:15 with return trip leaving 17:36 arr 19:10.

Ticket costs are ridiculous! ^51 as two singles or ^87 anytime return!!

This is plain crazy!

[IndustryInsider]

According to Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) it should be ^38 anytime return (NFM06 prices, via Didcot) - another case of an error in the online booking systems?

[devon_metro]

Defo a journey planner error, seems to be forcing you via Reading.

^41 Peak Day Return (Route Not Reading)
^87 Peak Return (Route Not London)

[Chris from Nailsea]

Welcome to the Coffee Shop forum, philvr!

Chris 

[Bob_Blakey]

Would travelling via Westbury be a possibility?

Example
Road from Melksham to Trowbridge. TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains) 0727-WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) 0734 & WSB 0751-RDG^‡(resolve) 0850 for ^21 plus RDG 0911-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) 0934 for ^7.80 making a total of ^28.80.
You can make the trip from MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) by catching the 0641 service, and it is slightly cheaper at ^25.30, but the wait at WSB is horrendous (54 minutes-although I would consider it if a decent breakfast could be procured at Westbury!)

Haven't looked at returns using the same route.

[grahame]

There is
06:41 MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) - 06:57 WSB^» (Westbury - next trains)
07:01 WSB - 08:06 RDG^‡(resolve)
08:11 RDG - 08:34 OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)
And for an 08:45 / Oxford City Centre which is when / where I'm due, it's just OK.  But it's 60 seconds short of a connection at WSB and I've not costed it.

For return, Travelline gave me
18:31 OXF - 18:54 RDG
19:02 RDG - 19:16 Newbury
19:45 Newbury - 21:05 Melksham by National Express route 402
Which for my ideal 18:00 ex Oxford is - well - it would make a change!

P.S.  The AA says driving is 60 miles, and 1 hour 22 minutes.
So that is 7:00 from home - 8:30 in Oxford;  18:00 from Oxford, 19:30 home.

[johoare]

I really like the fact that if I put Melksham to Oxford in NR^» (Network Rail - home page) journey planner with an 8.30am arrival Monday.. it suggests leaving Melksham at 19.52 on Sunday arriving a whole eleven hours early 

[grahame]

I really like the fact that if I put Melksham to Oxford in NR^» (Network Rail - home page) journey planner with an 8.30am arrival Monday.. it suggests leaving Melksham at 19.52 on Sunday arriving a whole eleven hours early 

If you put in Oxford to Melksham for any day during the week for a morning arrival, it suggests 00:07 from Oxford to 06:41 at Melksham - 5 minutes at Didcot and 5 hours 32 minutes at Swindon. 

As it's an officially recognised / recommended through journey, I've often been tempted to try it sometime, and use it to help generate publicity for the case for a  better TransWilts service.  I wonder is I could find a quiet, warm corner to sit / snooze / work on my laptop during the wait, and if I could find someone from the press to accompany me and take photos ...

[grahame]

Posting from Oxford ... I drove in the end - just no practical rail-way, and I'm staying in a hotel up here overnight.  Awful journey on the road - about 2.5 hours, confirming there's a lot of traffic that heads up this way  .

[Tim]

I know Melksham has its own special issues, but Oxford's connectivity from the West is in general not great.  It seems that loads of the mainline HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) to Swindon stop at Didcot but many of them do not connect very well.  There are many times in the day when it is quicker to go via Reading which as well as costing more just shows how bad the connectivity is on what ought to be a much shorter route with a change at Didcot. 

[mjones]

I agree. With at least two services per hour from Swindon to Didcot, and two per hour from Didcot to Oxford, connections ought to be good, but sadly Oxford departures are often a few minutes before Swindon arrivals, or so close after as to not be reliable, so only about one per hour is actually a workable connection. It is very frustrating to see Oxford trains that have often been waiting several minutes in Platform 3 start to pull away just as a Swindon train pulls into P2.

Let's hope Reading upgrade and electrification will allow a timetable with better connections.

[Tim]

Let's hope Reading upgrade and electrification will allow a timetable with better connections.

I'd hope that this would allow some tweaking of the timing, but the other issue is that the wrong Oxford-Reading trains stop at Didcot.  I suspect that this might be use to Didcot pathing issues. 

[mjones]

Withdrawing the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) stops at Didcot didn't help- justified by DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) on the grounds that there are "excellent connections" via Oxford which, a) isn't the case, again with lots of trains timetabled not to connect and b) ignores connections from the West.

[Tim]

Withdrawing the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) stops at Didcot didn't help- justified by DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) on the grounds that there are "excellent connections" via Oxford which, a) isn't the case, again with lots of trains timetabled not to connect and b) ignores connections from the West.

absolutely agree.  Fortunately my regular Bath-Oxford commuting days are over.