Once upon a time, a long long time ago, Melksham Station was a thriving operation with two platforms, a reasonable service, and goods yards for general traffic, and for heavy industry such as Spencer's, near the railway. But that was a long, long time ago.

In the dark days of Dr Beeching, the station was closed and just a single track remained through, with a weekly passenger train and a bit of freight; the general traffic went, then all the heavy industry dedicated traffic. British Railways demolished the station. They sold off all of the land that they no longer used to the North West. They even sold off half of the remaining platform ... but they did retain a short piece of the platform, old good sheds to the South East, the approach road itself, and the land to the East of the approach road, which they let out to various companies.

A limited train service returned in 1985, using the short remaining piece of platform and the approach road still owned by BR. However, when BR was privatized the land outside the station's current limits - the approach road, the old goods sheds and the surrounding area - were transferred to the "BRB Residuary Body" which was set up with the task, basically, of working itself out of a job by getting rid of land that had once been used for railway purposes but wasn't any longer.

Over the past four of five years, BRB Residuary has given notice on several occasions that they're going to put up the land for auction, with a view to selling it for development. The only protection for station access looked like it would be just a right of way - i.e. footpath - and not motor vehicle access. That would certainly have scuppered any future plans for taxis, buses, or parking at the station (which, come on, a station with a fit-for-purpose service for a growing town currently of 22000 people needs), and would also have eliminated any possibility of continuing the cul-de-sac to the station through to Spencer's Gate, where a roundabout already has an outlet pointing to the station. The big benefit of this extra section would be to put the station on a road that buses and taxis could go THROUGH on their natural journeys - providing a good road-rail interchange. The extra road section would also open up easy access to Melksham Station from the Spencer Gate ("Foundry Close") development, Leekes and other stores in the area, North Melksham, and by footpath over the river to Melksham Forest. This extra road section is specifically 'reserved' in the county's plans, and the station / service is fully supported by them in the current local transport plan.

The train service itself - 5 trains each way daily - was cut back by First as part of their current franchise in 2006 at the behest of the Department for Transport, and we now have just two trains a day. It was regarded in "Marsham Street" - the DfT in London - as something of a basket case, and I was told by unofficial sources that "if you can win an improvement for this service, you can win it for any service." Hmmm - how times have changed in 3 years. The service remains dire (though we did get back a southbound Sunday service), but we've now got the best BCR (Benefit to Cost ratio) of any line that's looking at improvement in the South West.

So - coming up to date, we have ... a rail service that fully justifies improvement and a body looking to sell off the very land that would be needed as it's improved. Watch the local papers this week ... I think you'll find some excellent news in the next chapter. Not the end of any story, but certainly a superb step forward.

Story Continues .... [here]

(written 2009-11-24 21:11:04)

 Z501 - Public Transport - Rail
  [2855] Train Services - Melksham to Bath and Bristol (and airport) - (2010-07-05)
  [2808] From home to Nurnberg - journey pictures - (2010-06-13)
  [2696] Garlic bread without garlic - (2010-03-27)
  [2678] Reaching out to the community - a good case for support - (2010-03-15)
  [2662] Is Melksham public transport actually used? - (2010-03-05)
  [2658] Save the Train - a significant change in approach - (2010-03-03)
  [2634] London to and from Melksham by public transport - (2010-02-13)
  [2627] Saturdays out from Melksham - to Oxford, to Didcot or to Swindon - (2010-02-07)
  [2568] Forums for your Melksham and open source discussions - (2010-01-09)
  [2557] Rail Campaign - response to core consultation - (2009-12-31)
  [2556] Railway Station Survey - please complete today or tomorrow - (2009-12-30)
  [2533] Five guests, three groups, one car - (2009-12-11)
  [2529] Santa Special, 2009 - (2009-12-06)
  [2522] Integrated public Transport - what could be done for Melksham - (2009-12-01)
  [2513] Wiltshire Council purchases Melksham Station Land - (2009-11-26)
  [2486] Santa Special - Trowbridge and Melksham to Swindon - (2009-10-31)
  [2477] By train ... - (2009-10-25)
  [2473] Exploring Old Railways - (2009-10-24)
  [2457] Railway Arithmetic - (2009-10-16)
  [2438] Listening to The Minister - (2009-10-05)
  [2395] From Lymington by train - last of the slammers - (2009-09-05)
  [2391] Great Western Route Utilisation Strategy - Draft for Consultation - (2009-09-02)
  [2372] Public Transport from (and to) Melksham on Sundays - (2009-08-23)
  [2328] Melksham - no trains, no southbound buses through the town - (2009-08-08)
  [2318] For Lua Programmers AND for Town Planners - (2009-08-02)
  [2268] Westbury Bypass Refused - looking forward - (2009-07-04)
  [2133] Bigger and better this year! - (2009-04-20)
  [2057] Train and Coach fares from London (and airports) to Melksham - (2009-02-26)
  [2042] Wiltshire Rail Service Update - (2009-02-15)
  [2026] Melksham Climate Friendly Group - (2009-02-05)
  [2024] Carry on Training - in spite of the weather - (2009-02-03)
  [1999] How low can you sink? - (2009-01-17)
  [1966] Background to the TransWilts Train Fiasco - (2008-12-29)
  [1965] How much does a train service actually cost - (2008-12-29)
  [1964] Why hasnt the fiasco been put right - (2008-12-29)
  [1905] A Gold Star for First Great Western Customer Service - (2008-11-24)
  [1858] Camera with night vision, youth with no vision - (2008-10-28)
  [1848] 30th November - Santa Trip from Melksham - (2008-10-19)
  [1757] Preserved railways - struggling to the future? - (2008-08-17)
  [1729] Back from the future - (2008-07-30)
  [1708] A Train Service Update for Melksham Party in the Park - (2008-07-13)
  [1616] Not daring to be an anorak - (2008-04-19)
  [1567] Melksham - Swindon. Train v Bus v Car - (2008-03-07)
  [1558] Getting somewhere with the train service - (2008-02-28)
  [1530] Railway Acronyms and Abbreviations - (2008-02-03)
  [1452] Santa on the train to Melksham - (2007-12-01)
  [1428] Travel Across Wiltshire - the game - (2007-11-11)
  [1424] Closer than you think - the next step - (2007-11-08)
  [1358] Look forward with a new broom - Wiltshire Train Service - (2007-09-19)
  [1314] Business travel by train in the USA - (2007-08-22)
  [1303] Heading Upstate New York - (2007-08-14)
  [1291] Day trip to Weymouth - (2007-08-05)
  [1274] Radio coverage for railway issues - (2007-07-23)
  [1273] Melksham or Weymouth? Meal or day out? - (2007-07-23)
  [1228] Some progress on the train campaign - (2007-06-10)
  [1139] Overcrowded trains around Bristol - (2007-04-08)
  [1097] Train and business balls all in the air! - (2007-03-02)
  [1093] Wiltshire Train - can YOU come on 5th March? - (2007-02-25)
  [1076] Save the Train - an update - (2007-02-12)
  [1069] Rail trouble forced me to buy hotel - (2007-02-07)
  [1063] Bradford-on-Avon - 150 years of passenger trains - (2007-02-03)
  [1045] Bang! Train campaign hits home - (2007-01-19)
  [1044] Call for appropriate train services - Swindon, Bristol, Bath, West Wilts, Severn Beach etc - (2007-01-18)
  [1033] Empty at Easleigh, Missing at Melksham, Overflowing at Oldfield - (2007-01-14)
  [976] Santa at the station - (2006-12-09)
  [974] The last commuter train through Melksham - (2006-12-09)
  [952] Coming from London to Melksham by train for a course - (2006-11-28)
  [814] Melksham Railway Calendar 2007 - (2006-07-25)
  [790] Shadow Transport Minister to visit Melksham - (2006-07-02)
  [697] For any North and West Wilts and Swindon Readers - (2006-04-23)
  [648] West Wilts Railway Users Group and trains to Lacock - (2006-03-16)
  [632] Moral dilemma - (2006-03-04)
  [527] Greater Western Franchise Awarded - (2005-12-13)
  [524] Santa comes to Melksham - (2005-12-11)
  [488] Looking for railway groups and users - Swindon, Salisbury, Southampton - (2005-11-06)
  [486] Rail services under threat - Swindon, Melksham ... and Newquay and Bicester too - (2005-11-05)
  [447] Tomorrow's meeting. - (2005-09-19)
  [434] Through public transport connection, Chippenham to Salisbury, to cease - (2005-09-02)
  [428] Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury train service - (2005-08-29)
  [154] Railway train service, Melksham station - (2004-12-17)

Back to The music of the stock market

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Forward to Kim of the Castle

Why we have two buses an hour - but not a half hourly service
The road show has been - where now?
Kim of the Castle
The story of the railway land at Melksham Station
The music of the stock market
A life lesson from the accuracy of numbers in Excel and Lua
Community Area Partnership - inaugural AGM
Admission
Good example of recursion in Python - analyse an RSS feed