From this Saturday, 20th September 2025, the Saturday through train from Chippenham to Oxford returns.  Connection at 10:09 from Melksham, 10:44 from Chippenham, arrive at Oxford at 11:27.  Return service direct to Chippenham from Oxford at 17:12, or return to Melkshan at 16:30, 18:02 or 20:05, changing at Didcot and Swindon.

Day return fare - £21.80 each, or £14.50 each with a railcard or in a group of 3. Same fare also applies if you want to go on from Oxford to Bicester Village, and it's the same fare from Melksham or Chippenham.

Tickets can be purchased prior to departure at the ticket machines at Melksham or at Chippenham Station, or from the ticket office in Chippenham or if you are paying in cash on the train from Melksham.

(I've put a link to said picture in img tags above, which is displayed in Preview, but not in the final post? Update: tried setting height/width, which results in an empty box?)

Residents are calling for CCTV to be installed at the Bath Road underpass following an assault on a man in his 60s last month

The incident took place on 9th August, when the man was attacked by four teenage boys, believed to be between 13 and 15 years old. He required hospital treatment as a result of the attack.

Following the incident, residents have taken to social media to call for improved safety in the area. Many are calling for CCTV to be installed, and for better lighting so people feel safe walking home late at night.

One resident said, “It’s always been a dodgy area of town. I don’t understand why, after all these years, there isn’t decent lighting or CCTV down there. Yes, the professional graffiti is an improvement, but that hasn’t improved safety.”

Another added, “Clearly there should be CCTV there. It’s a main pedestrian route from the railway station to the north of the town. Lighting should be checked before the winter nights set in too.”

Melksham Town Council, which manages the town’s CCTV network, was asked whether it has any plans to install cameras at the underpass. Melksham News also asked about the £13,000 mobile CCTV cameras purchased in 2023 and whether they have been deployed in Melksham, and if so, when and where. It is understood they have yet to be used.

No response had been received from the council prior to going to press.

Campaigner James Wright pushes case for reconnecting West Somerset to mainline trains

EXMOOR farmer and political campaigner James Wright has visited Shadow Railways Minister Jerome Mayhew in Westminster to push the case for reconnecting West Somerset to the national rail network.

Mr Wright said: “Restoring this rail link would be transformative.

“It would provide reliable school and commuter transport, boost tourism, and strengthen our local economy.

“The Conservative party is clear that projects like this can happen with the right political will.

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:09

05:11 Gloucester to Southampton Central due 08:09 was terminated at Westbury.
It will no longer call at Dilton Marsh, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton Central.
This is due to a fault on this train.

I thought members might be correctly sway-ed in that direction.

Pictures of animals always help post visibility ... so here we go ...

For the benefit of our readers, I can confirm that this is grahame posting.

[snip]

As an side, having got to know them quite well, I can tell you that the dog on the left is the noisy one and the dog on the right is the naughty one.

Lydney? 5541, the number of the loco, is resident there

Ten years on - 4 cancellations out of 18  today, which is 22%.  Sadly, I can't say that this sort of rate shocks me these days or is unusual. Because I quote the figure for one day, the PR team will explain why today was especially bad and for sure it was worse than many days.   ...

Well, that's a fairly wide area, from which the rest of us can only guess.

It's one that I expected to stick - even though I went there on a Freedom of Severn and Solent.