Engineering works have closed Westbury station up to and including 23rd January, and most of our trains are replaced by buses for the duration. On a beautiful day today, I took a trip to Westbury to see at first hand how it was working, and to refresh my picture library for 2025.

Well - it got me there and worked as it was designed to do, but it makes me very thankful for the much faster and smoother journeys by rail, and having a loo available along the way.   The coach seats were more comfortable than the seats on the train, and the seat pitch felt luxurious.

 
I'm actually MUCH preferring the rail replacement bus. There seems to be much less chance of last minute cancellations to services to and from Melksham. Timings might be a little bit erratic but at least there's a service. Bus crews actually turn up for duty, amazingly enough. Buses leaving Chippenham seem to be much less prone to suddenly veer off at Thingley and go straight to Trowbridge via Bathampton, Freshford, Bradford on Avon etc. missing out Melksham altogether. Buses leaving Westbury don't suddenly dump passengers at an unstaffed Trowbridge station and instruct them to find taxis or alternative buses to Melksham because they are now apparently heading for Chippenham via Bradford on Avon, Freshford, Bathampton etc.

 
We travelled from Salisbury to Bristol on Sunday afternoon, taking the rail replacement service from Salisbury to Trowbridge. Everything worked well and ran to time (the coach making quite prolonged stops at Warminster and Westbury), and the train at Trowbridge was waiting at the platform, ready for us to board when the coach arrived. Since we had many bags, I was relieved that the vehicle was a coach, with a luggage compartment under the seats, rather than a bus.

 
The 4 vehicles my employer are supplying from down here in Devon for this rail replacement do have toilets! You just got unlucky having one without a loo I guess

 

Maybe - or maybe I didn't look enough.  Whole variety of coaches at Trowbridge and I suspect the one with loos may have been in use on the longer (Salisbury) runs.

 
Last time I got on a rail replacement service at Westbury it was a very comfortable executive coach whose day job was as Taunton Town FC's team transport.

 
Were you expected to jog up & down and sign autographs after disembarking? 

 

The white Truronian Mercedes in your photo doesn’t have a toilet.

Ours are the blue Megabus branded Interdecks. Toilet is located on the middle stair case.