TransWilts CRP, CIC and Melksham RUG
Public and sustainable transport in Wiltshire

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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Why has the hourly Chippenham to Trowbridge train been withdrawn?


From my postbag - letter to a new commuter

I understand you  [82][ac] Ä re commuting for work from Chippenham to Trowbridge (started in early August?) and are dismayed to find that the hourly train service - journey time 20 minutes - that you enjoyed that month is no longer available. Your colleague at Wiltshire Council copied me in on your letter to First Great Western (with your permission), and initially I suggest that we await their official answer; I  [82][ac] Ä m sure you  [82][ac] Ä ll appreciate this may take a few days for them to research. I am, however, going to give you some local / community background to the story. This won  [82][ac] Ä t bring the hourly trains back in the near future. But it will help provide you with some logic, and it provides us with a valuable case study into future service needs - which are currently being looked at in some detail for implementation when electrification is completed through Chippenham and other / connecting and regional services will be amended.

Operation of local and commuter trains in not a profitable business. Although many travellers will report trains that are well loaded, the sad fact is that the loading often happens only at peak times, and at other times of day (unseen by that swell of peak passengers) loading is light or worse. Fares are typically lower per mile than on long distance services, and miles are covered an fares collected at slower speed. Trains are typically short, which means that staff salaries have to be spread over just a carriage or two. So although the railways are operated under commercial franchise, service levels are typically government specified, and extra services rarely offered without incentive / contract by the train operator.

For the last decade or so, the government  [82][ac] Ä s franchise has required the operation of 2 trains each way per (week)day between Swindon and Westbury, which includes the Chippenham - (Melksham) - Trowbridge section. Timing rules on the requirement, and the time that driver and train haven  [82][ac] Ä t been in use elsewhere, gave us services from Chippenham at 06:28 and 19:11 - it was actually better business sense for First Great Western (become Great Western Railway in the last week) to run the trains when not required to provide services elsewhere than to provide services at the time they would be most used. For running them at a   [82][ac][c5][93]used  [82][ac][c2][9d] time would cost the hire charges for an extra train and extra crew - some hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum.

This service was deeply unsatisfactory, and a trial service of six extra round trips per day - using a single carriage train - was introduced for 2014, to run for three years. Seed funding is / has been provided by the Department for Transport under an LSTF grant, with Wiltshire Council also providing some funding, and both Wiltshire Council and Great Western providing considerable support services such as marketing and ancillary investment to help ensure the trial has the best possible chance of success, That  [82][ac] Ä s not only for their own satisfaction - that  [82][ac] Ä s also for the people who use the service, and for others in the area for which it brings commercial gain.

The trial service train takes around 2 hours to make a round trip from Westbury to Swindon and back by the time you consider   [82][ac][c5][93]turn around time  [82][ac][c2][9d] and the availability of the track between other trains - and the decision was taken at the time the trial was started to time it to provide a peak arrival into Swindon (around 08:20) and a peak departure just after 17:30. That  [82][ac] Ä s a tough decision on people who wish to arrive at our county town of Trowbridge at 08:30 and leave at 17:30 - simply because the train can  [82][ac] Ä t be in two places at once. However, it was possible to source and finance a single train for the trial, but requesting and holding out for 2 trains to give an hourly service would have been a step too far. It wouldn  [82][ac] Ä t have fitted into an LSTF grant, and it would have been a less good business case because indications are that 70% of the peak traffic is Swindon-bound and 30% Westbury-bound.

For August 2015, engineering works on the approaches to Bath Spa meant that the train service on the   [82][ac][c5][93]next line over  [82][ac][c2][9d] - Portsmouth to Cardiff - was diverted into a Portsmouth - Swindon service, with South Wales passengers changing at Swindon. This resulted in the single carriage train being replaced for the month by longer trains with additional passengers not normally using the line. And those trains ran - as do regular Portsmouth - Cardiff trains - ran hourly, It was an excellent confirmation that the one could cope well, and also an excellent illustration that customers want a service south from Swindon / Chippenham all day, more frequent, and through beyond Westbury to Salisbury and beyond. But it was co-incidentally useful, and much as the community would have liked it to continue beyond 1st September, such was not possible - both financially and operationally (with a lack of additional trains and crew). So - regrettably - the immediate answer is that a really useful service ran for a month and then went away again.

Looking further forward, the Community Rail Partnership, Great Western, and Wiltshire Council all want the trial service to succeed, become permanent, and indeed grow as an appropriate service for the route covered. None of us want to see it drop back to pre-2014 levels. So the mechanism is in place for the trail service to   [82][ac][c5][93]roll in  [82][ac][c2][9d] to the franchise beyond December 2016; passenger number are (as has been observed - full and standing almost every day) very much in excess of the minimum needed to label the service a success, and indeed are so good as to suggest that an hourly service - plugging the southbound peak gap amongst other holes - would be appropriate.   [82][ac][c5][93]TransWilts Vision 2020  [82][ac][c2][9d] suggest hourly Swindon - Westbury services, linking into Westbury - Salisbury local services and indeed services on to Southampton Airport, and background work is being undertaken on the operational feasibility of this service and its commercial situation once electric trains start operating in the Thames Valley, services at Chippenham are recast, and diesel trains are released to be available in places like Wiltshire.

So - I can offer you the above as to why the busy trains you saw in August aren  [82][ac] Ä t running in September - basically, they were a co-incidental temporary improvement due to engineering. That doesn  [82][ac] Ä t provide you with the 20 minute commuter train to Trowbridge in the immediate future, I  [82][ac] Ä m afraid - but at least I can confirm that  [82][ac] Ä s on the agenda for the future - that it  [82][ac] Ä s being looked at - and indeed I  [82][ac] Ä ll be describing your requirement as a further example to help press the case for future years. In the meantime, yes, there are trains available via Bath Spa within the gaps - slower and more expensive, and there  [82][ac] Ä s a daytime bus service (route x34) which is also slower. Through and transferrable ticketing between train and bus is another whole subject   [82][ac][c2]æ there is a very great deal that needs sorting out in public transport. We have come forward hugely over the last couple of years, but have a long way to go.

You  [82][ac] Ä ll note that Wiltshire Council - for whom you  [82][ac] Ä ve been asked to move your work base - are very much involved in the positive (but longwinded) improvement in the service - it  [82][ac] Ä s hugely better now due in part to them than it was a couple of years ago. And I  [82][ac] Ä m sure that your input to their passenger and sustainable transport units to encourage them along further would be worthwhile - just as your input to GWR feedback and mine (copying to managers looking ahead) will be. And I would really appreciate it if your could share the response you get from GWR with us - it need your permission / action due to the various data protection issues - so we can all work ahead and reach a permanent southbound commuter services in   [82][ac][c5][93]Vision 2020  [82][ac][c2][9d]

Graham

Graham Ellis - grahamellis@transwilts.org
Community Rail Officer, TransWilts Community Rail Partnership
TransWilts CRP 48, Spa Road, Melksham, Wilts, SN12 7NY
A division of the TransWilts Community Interest Company (CIC)
http://www.twcrp.org.uk - 0845 459 0153 / 01225 708225
(written 2015-09-24, updated 2015-09-25)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z501 - Public Transport - Rail
  [154] Railway train service, Melksham station - (2004-12-17)
  [428] Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury train service - (2005-08-29)
  [434] Through public transport connection, Chippenham to Salisbury, to cease - (2005-09-02)
  [447] Tomorrow's meeting. - (2005-09-19)
  [486] Rail services under threat - Swindon, Melksham ... and Newquay and Bicester too - (2005-11-05)
  [488] Looking for railway groups and users - Swindon, Salisbury, Southampton - (2005-11-06)
  [521] Proof needed? Please just use common sense! - (2005-12-08)
  [524] Santa comes to Melksham - (2005-12-11)
  [527] Greater Western Franchise Awarded - (2005-12-13)
  [632] Moral dilemma - (2006-03-04)
  [634] Real chance to make a difference - (2006-03-05)
  [648] West Wilts Railway Users Group and trains to Lacock - (2006-03-16)
  [688] Are you free on Friday evening? - (2006-04-18)
  [697] For any North and West Wilts and Swindon Readers - (2006-04-23)
  [790] Shadow Transport Minister to visit Melksham - (2006-07-02)
  [803] Not shouting - (2006-07-16)
  [814] Melksham Railway Calendar 2007 - (2006-07-25)
  [877] Yes, but what do we do now?? - (2006-09-24)
  [952] Coming from London to Melksham by train for a course - (2006-11-28)
  [974] The last commuter train through Melksham - (2006-12-09)
  [976] Santa at the station - (2006-12-09)
  [1033] Empty at Easleigh, Missing at Melksham, Overflowing at Oldfield - (2007-01-14)
  [1044] Call for appropriate train services - Swindon, Bristol, Bath, West Wilts, Severn Beach etc - (2007-01-18)
  [1045] Bang! Train campaign hits home - (2007-01-19)
  [1063] Bradford-on-Avon - 150 years of passenger trains - (2007-02-03)
  [1069] Rail trouble forced me to buy hotel - (2007-02-07)
  [1076] Save the Train - an update - (2007-02-12)
  [1093] Wiltshire Train - can YOU come on 5th March? - (2007-02-25)
  [1097] Train and business balls all in the air! - (2007-03-02)
  [1139] Overcrowded trains around Bristol - (2007-04-08)
  [1228] Some progress on the train campaign - (2007-06-10)
  [1273] Melksham or Weymouth? Meal or day out? - (2007-07-23)
  [1274] Radio coverage for railway issues - (2007-07-23)
  [1291] Day trip to Weymouth - (2007-08-05)
  [1303] Heading Upstate New York - (2007-08-14)
  [1314] Business travel by train in the USA - (2007-08-22)
  [1358] Look forward with a new broom - Wiltshire Train Service - (2007-09-19)
  [1382] First Great Western - information for customers - (2007-10-07)
  [1424] Closer than you think - the next step - (2007-11-08)
  [1428] Travel Across Wiltshire - the game - (2007-11-11)
  [1452] Santa on the train to Melksham - (2007-12-01)
  [1530] Railway Acronyms and Abbreviations - (2008-02-03)
  [1558] Getting somewhere with the train service - (2008-02-28)
  [1567] Melksham - Swindon. Train v Bus v Car - (2008-03-07)
  [1616] Not daring to be an anorak - (2008-04-19)
  [1708] A Train Service Update for Melksham Party in the Park - (2008-07-13)
  [1729] Back from the future - (2008-07-30)
  [1757] Preserved railways - struggling to the future? - (2008-08-17)
  [1848] 30th November - Santa Trip from Melksham - (2008-10-19)
  [1858] Camera with night vision, youth with no vision - (2008-10-28)
  [1905] A Gold Star for First Great Western Customer Service - (2008-11-24)
  [1964] Why hasnt the fiasco been put right - (2008-12-29)
  [1965] How much does a train service actually cost - (2008-12-29)
  [1966] Background to the TransWilts Train Fiasco - (2008-12-29)
  [1999] How low can you sink? - (2009-01-17)
  [2024] Carry on Training - in spite of the weather - (2009-02-03)
  [2026] Melksham Climate Friendly Group - (2009-02-05)
  [2042] Wiltshire Rail Service Update - (2009-02-15)
  [2057] Train and Coach fares from London (and airports) to Melksham - (2009-02-26)
  [2133] Bigger and better this year! - (2009-04-20)
  [2268] Westbury Bypass Refused - looking forward - (2009-07-04)
  [2318] For Lua Programmers AND for Town Planners - (2009-08-02)
  [2328] Melksham - no trains, no southbound buses through the town - (2009-08-08)
  [2372] Public Transport from (and to) Melksham on Sundays - (2009-08-23)
  [2391] Great Western Route Utilisation Strategy - Draft for Consultation - (2009-09-02)
  [2395] From Lymington by train - last of the slammers - (2009-09-05)
  [2438] Listening to The Minister - (2009-10-05)
  [2457] Railway Arithmetic - (2009-10-16)
  [2473] Exploring Old Railways - (2009-10-24)
  [2477] By train ... - (2009-10-25)
  [2486] Santa Special - Trowbridge and Melksham to Swindon - (2009-10-31)
  [2511] The story of the railway land at Melksham Station - (2009-11-24)
  [2513] Wiltshire Council purchases Melksham Station Land - (2009-11-26)
  [2522] Integrated public Transport - what could be done for Melksham - (2009-12-01)
  [2529] Santa Special, 2009 - (2009-12-06)
  [2533] Five guests, three groups, one car - (2009-12-11)
  [2556] Railway Station Survey - please complete today or tomorrow - (2009-12-30)
  [2557] Rail Campaign - response to core consultation - (2009-12-31)
  [2568] Forums for your Melksham and open source discussions - (2010-01-09)
  [2626] On Malachite Green - (2010-02-06)
  [2627] Saturdays out from Melksham - to Oxford, to Didcot or to Swindon - (2010-02-07)
  [2634] London to and from Melksham by public transport - (2010-02-13)
  [2658] Save the Train - a significant change in approach - (2010-03-03)
  [2662] Is Melksham public transport actually used? - (2010-03-05)
  [2664] Oliver Cromwell at Bristol Temple Meads - (2010-03-06)
  [2678] Reaching out to the community - a good case for support - (2010-03-15)
  [2696] Garlic bread without garlic - (2010-03-27)
  [2808] From home to Nurnberg - journey pictures - (2010-06-13)
  [2855] Train Services - Melksham to Bath and Bristol (and airport) - (2010-07-05)
  [2901] Ambassador or Anorak? - (2010-08-03)
  [2908] How Green is my train? - (2010-08-07)
  [2919] London to Calne, Corsham, Melksham, Bradford-on-Avon, Chippenham by public Transport - (2010-08-13)
  [2930] Walk - Tilehurst to Pangborne - (2010-08-21)
  [2931] Syncronise - software, trains, and buses. Please! - (2010-08-22)
  [2954] Railway meetings, trips and meetups this autumn - (2010-09-12)
  [2955] Melksham Railway Station - new information point - (2010-09-13)
  [2982] Travel, Transport and Tourism - A vision for Melksham, 2026 - (2010-10-03)
  [3006] Santa announcement, 5th December 2010, Melksham - (2010-10-20)
  [3017] Seventh day traveller on the six day railway - (2010-10-27)
  [3031] Get all your ducks in a row ... and they may turn into swans - (2010-11-06)
  [3033] Rail services back to Radstock? - (2010-11-07)
  [3079] TransWilts Rail News ... Melksham (Santa Special) Edition ... 5th December 2010 - (2010-12-04)
  [3080] Santa Special - rather more special than usual - December 2010 - (2010-12-07)
  [3111] TransWilts Link - Days out from Swindon to Weymouth? - (2010-12-28)
  [3113] Trowbridge and Melksham to Chippenham - more roadworks, even slower journey over the winter - (2010-12-30)
  [3114] Transwilts Link - both Wiltshire and beyond - (2010-12-30)
  [3119] TransWilts - some things to see and do - (2011-01-03)
  [3135] A time to be brave? We should ask for what is best for our area. - (2011-01-16)
  [3141] Wiltshire Rail services - a golden opportunity - (2011-01-21)
  [3161] TransWilts rail - what picture represents us - (2011-02-08)
  [3167] Can I take my dog by train? And other questions - (2011-02-12)
  [3171] Train and boat journey - the passenger accommodation - (2011-02-15)
  [3176] Comparing German, Dutch and British Railways - (2011-02-19)
  [3178] The cost of roadworks on the economy of our town - 1800 pounds per hour? - (2011-02-20)
  [3187] Past and Present - Melksham Station - (2011-02-27)
  [3198] TransWilts rail - coming together, wanted and needed - (2011-03-10)
  [3273] Wanted - a look to the future - (2011-05-02)
  [3274] Small scale improvement - big scale gain. And they CAN be done with local knowledge - (2011-05-02)
  [3318] Summer Sunday Trains - outings from Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury - (2011-06-05)
  [3328] Summer Sundays - days out by train from Swindon on the TransWilts - (2011-06-18)
  [3331] Comparing Alloa and Melksham - stations and services - (2011-06-23)
  [3336] Efficient travel - from Melsksham to Edinburgh by Sleeper Train - (2011-06-26)
  [3362] Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham to Weymouth - Sunday Train Service Starts - (2011-07-19)
  [3364] Dogs Legs on the Dogleg - (2011-07-20)
  [3370] Standing Challenge - (2011-07-26)
  [3371] From Wiltshire to Weymouth on Sundays - (2011-07-27)
  [3378] New product - ensuring that supply matches demand - (2011-08-03)
  [3392] What costs 8.20 from Melksham, or 22.30 via Chippenham? - (2011-08-14)
  [3403] Last chance this summer - Swindon and North Wiltshire to Weymouth by through train - (2011-08-22)
  [3408] Journey home by public transport for a Bank Holiday - (2011-08-27)
  [3410] A review of the Summer Sunday extra trains on the TransWilts line - (2011-08-29)
  [3434] Sundays - and over eating - (2011-09-11)
  [3452] Which or ATOC - who reads train fares right? - (2011-09-22)
  [3486] How important is public transport to people in the Melksham area? - (2011-10-19)
  [3487] Public transport - road and rail - (2011-10-19)
  [3493] West Wilts Rail User Group - Walk yesterday from Bradford-on-Avon to Trowbridge - (2011-10-23)
  [3501] Santa Claus - on the train from Melksham on 4th December 2011 - (2011-10-30)
  [3538] Santa Train - another successful trip - 4th December 2011 - (2011-12-04)
  [3550] Provide a useable train service, and people will use it! - (2011-12-11)
  [3564] I wish I was not a special case - (2011-12-29)
  [3565] What would an appropriate train service on the TransWilts line mean - (2011-12-31)
  [3579] Transport in Cambridgeshire - seen by an outside observer. What can Wiltshire learn? - (2012-01-15)
  [3601] Rail Travel - has it become more unreliable? - (2012-02-02)
  [3626] There is so much to see travelling by train - (2012-02-26)
  [3631] Getting around Dublin by public transport - some observations - (2012-03-01)
  [3642] Wiltshire Travel Times - Chippenham, Trowbridge, Salisbury and other places too - (2012-03-07)
  [3668] Kings Cross - new concourse - between Python in Cambridge and Objective C in London - (2012-03-22)
  [3671] Future train services in Wiltshire - please write in to support a better service - (2012-03-24)
  [3699] Bristol 50? Bristol 25? - (2012-04-17)
  [3728] The future needs for rail services to Melksham - change needed; current service an insult - (2012-05-11)
  [3736] Abstraction - (2012-05-19)
  [3761] Melksham - placed 2254 out of 2255. What can be done about it? - (2012-06-11)
  [3765] Christmas in June? Melksham hotel bookings and Santa train - (2012-06-15)
  [3784] Steam train calls at Melksham - Pictures - (2012-06-26)
  [3786] Improving Wiltshire Rail Offer - it WILL be happening - (2012-06-28)
  [3793] Excellent Rail News - what it really means - (2012-07-01)
  [3795] Like a bathroom company with no plumbers - (2012-07-04)
  [3802] What a difference a year makes - (2012-07-10)
  [3804] Scenes from commuting by train - (2012-07-14)
  [3815] The Melksham News - July 2012 - Part 2, TransWilts Rail, Wilts and Berks Canal - (2012-07-23)
  [3826] TransWilts trains - what the next franchise period will bring - (2012-08-04)
  [3860] Melksham to Steam in Swindon, by train - great day out - (2012-09-16)
  [3872] Trains across Wiltshire - an update on the TransWilts - (2012-09-28)
  [3873] Henbury loop, Bristol - a freight railway line with passenger potential? - (2012-09-29)
  [3879] Mixed mode travel - Information systems - (2012-10-03)
  [3881] Wiltshire Public Transport User Group co-ordination - (2012-10-05)
  [3882] Community Transport - Pewsey, Taunton, and the whole picture too - (2012-10-06)
  [3890] Here comes Santa - on the train from Melksham to Swindon on 2nd December 2012 - (2012-10-13)
  [3893] Public Transport across Wiltshire - a new map - (2012-10-13)
  [3899] Father Christmas to be on train in Melksham - (2012-10-19)
  [3904] Want to help us improve transport in Wiltshire? Here is how! - (2012-10-26)
  [3923] 35 minutes is only a slight delay on our railway service - (2012-11-15)
  [3937] Agenda for Wiltshire Link Travel groups meeting, Saturday 1st December 2012 - (2012-11-27)
  [3938] A long overdue meeting - a steeping stone towards coordinate transport user inputs - (2012-12-02)
  [3942] Santa Trip - Melksham Railway Development Group, 2012 - (2012-12-03)
  [3986] Rail services in Wiltshire - up in the air? We need to say what is best required. - (2013-01-20)
  [3993] Two trains a day ... how many fares to London? Guess! - (2013-02-04)
  [3994] On board Eurostar - a running commentary - (2013-02-04)
  [3995] Onward from Brussels - (2013-02-04)
  [4022] A request for all of Melksham transport groups to work integrated - (2013-03-01)
  [4040] Report on the last year - Melksham Railway Developement Group for Melksham Without Parish Council - (2013-03-11)
  [4080] Fancy a day at the seaside? Weymouth from Melksham - (2013-05-06)
  [4104] Weymouth vis the TransWilts - the day out today - (2013-05-27)
  [4105] Our day trip by train from Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham to Weymouth - (2013-05-28)
  [4110] TransWilts meeting ... - (2013-06-07)
  [4113] Wiltshire and Melksham Transport - what is going on? - (2013-06-09)
  [4131] West Coast (of Wales) - railway and stations in pictures - (2013-07-04)
  [4142] Passenger survey at Chippenham - report and pictures - (2013-07-24)
  [4146] A few more trains means a LOT more passengers. Why? - (2013-07-30)
  [4148] Special General Meeting, Adoption of Constitution for TransWilts Community Rail Partnership - (2013-08-01)
  [4150] Melksham Regular Public Transport Map - as at August 2013 - (2013-08-09)
  [4154] August Bank Holiday - day out from Melksham to London or Weymouth - (2013-08-20)
  [4159] People WILL walk to the station in Melksham, but they need a path and trains - (2013-08-25)
  [4160] Bank Holiday Monday - pictures of a great train trip to Weymouth - (2013-08-27)
  [4163] TransWilts Community Rail Partnership - formally constituted - (2013-09-01)
  [4173] Train and Rail Travel - who runs it and where do I ask questions? - (2013-09-13)
  [4176] International and off island travel from Melksham - (2013-09-16)
  [4185] TransWilts Trains - running a successful campaign talk - (2013-10-05)
  [4190] A radical proposal - a cheap and effective way to provide home to city commuter transport - (2013-10-11)
  [4191] Getting people to and from Melksham Station - not 20 but 700 times a day - (2013-10-12)
  [4194] TransWilts Link - meeting notes from 19th October - (2013-10-20)
  [4195] Booking for Santa, Melksham Railway Development Group, 8th December 2013 - (2013-10-21)
  [4196] Official - Trowbridge and Melksham to London train improvements - (2013-10-22)
  [4199] Draft Westbury - Melksham - Swindon train times, from December 2014 - (2013-10-24)
  [4202] Excellent Railfuture conference, but some setup lessons - (2013-11-03)
  [4216] Los Angeles - post modern transport system - (2013-11-27)
  [4217] New train service - launch plans and timetable links - (2013-12-03)
  [4218] A THANK YOU to those who have brought the new train service to fruition - (2013-12-06)
  [4219] TransWilts train services - up from 2 to 8 per day - (2013-12-09)
  [4224] TransWilts - first day pictures - (2013-12-18)
  [4226] Saturday train to Swindon - two weeks in - (2013-12-21)
  [4238] A Question series posed to Melksham Tourist information - (2014-01-19)
  [4250] Lacock Halt - former TransWilts Station - (2014-03-23)
  [4251] Broughton Gifford Halt, TransWilts Railway Line - (2014-03-24)
  [4252] Staveton Halt, former station between Trowbridge and Melksham - (2014-03-25)
  [4253] Easter Weeks - Melksham to Weymouth - (2014-04-02)
  [4256] Train fare look expensive? There may be a cheaper option - (2014-04-02)
  [4263] Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge, public transport over Easter (2014) - (2014-04-12)
  [4267] How effective is our publicity? - (2014-04-26)
  [4268] Metrics - historic and current TransWilts train use - (2014-04-27)
  [4269] Survey - Journeys - (2014-04-28)
  [4276] Swindon to Weymouth - by train, the traditional way - 2014 - (2014-05-12)
  [4289] It may be cheaper to buy in bulk - (2014-07-15)
  [4306] Four time target - good news. Four time prediction - poor forecasting. - (2014-09-26)
  [4312] Officially overcrowded in the first year - (2014-11-15)
  [4342] My first official measure - Passenger Entrys and Exits - revisited 9 years later - (2014-12-05)
  [4352] A long day on the trains, but a rewarding one - (2014-12-14)
  [4353] Celebration pictures, year 1 - (2014-12-15)
  [4365] The changing face of Christmas - (2014-12-26)
  [4367] A year of rail memories! - (2014-12-27)
  [4378] What FGW passengers want to talk about / and PHP programming to find out - (2015-01-01)
  [4397] TransWilts / Press and Publicity report for AGM / 30th January 2015 - (2015-01-17)
  [4425] A Welsh valley - what the transport looks like in 2015 - (2015-02-14)
  [4464] Catching up on a week all in a single post (?) - (2015-03-21)
  [4467] Neighbourhood Plan - travel and transport thoughts - (2015-03-29)
  [4471] Leopardstown to Rosslare by train - (2015-04-23)
  [4473] Fishguard to Melksham - third part of Dublin journey - (2015-04-25)
  [4475] New car park at Melksham Station - ideal for commuters from Seend, Hilperton, Yarnbrook and Holt - (2015-04-26)
  [4478] Home in Melksham to Gatwick Airport - easy by public transport - (2015-04-29)
  [4486] Newark to New York - the PATH suburban railway - (2015-05-05)
  [4495] Swindon to Westbury train services - Saturdays from 23rd May 2015 - (2015-05-17)
  [4496] Sunday train times - 17th May to 6th September 2015 - (2015-05-17)
  [4511] The Royal Albert Bridge as you do not normally see it - (2015-07-12)
  [4512] The Weymouth Wizard - Saturdays in August from Wiltshire - (2015-07-31)
  [4539] TransWilts public transport corridor - (2015-10-15)
  [4578] Rail electrification - far, far too optimistic so over budget and late - (2015-11-20)
  [4596] Call for help counting passengers - TransWilts, 12th to 14th December - (2015-12-10)
  [4598] 21 places to get your train and bus timetables for TransWilts - (2015-12-19)
  [4612] TransWilts - robust these days - no longer the first service to be cancelled - (2016-01-03)
  [4623] Rambling from Westbury - (2016-01-16)
  [4636] Rail user groups worried about what is happening on the buses - (2016-01-31)
  [4640] Who was Doctor Beeching and what was his axe? - (2016-02-06)
  [4665] Chippenham to Salisbury by public transport - what we have and what we could have - (2016-03-26)
  [4677] Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham - day trips by train to Weymouth start for 2016 - (2016-05-18)
  [4684] Melksham Station - as at May 2016 - Part 1 - (2016-05-28)
  [4685] Melksham Station - as at May 2016 - Part 2 - (2016-05-29)
  [4686] Melksham Station - as at May 2016 - Part 3 - (2016-05-29)
  [4687] Melksham Station - as at May 2016 - Part 4 - (2016-05-30)
  [4688] Melksham Station - as at May 2016 - Part 5 (services and prices) - (2016-05-30)
  [4695] Melksham Rail Development Group becoming Melksham Rail Users Group - (2016-06-21)
  [4699] Melksham Rail Development Group - a celebration of 20 years - (2016-06-25)
  [4706] Melksham trial train service is to be made permanent - (2016-10-02)
  [4726] TransWilts Partner Update for Melksham Area Board - (2016-11-07)
  [4727] Learning from travelling further afield - (2016-11-09)
  [4760] Rotary Talk, 25/7/2017 - (2017-07-25)
  [4764] Some thoughts on the closure proposal for Breich station - (2017-10-11)
  [4765] Breich Station - current pictures, and future options - (2017-10-11)
  [4770] GW franchise - my response - (2018-02-20)


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Black dog day - and Bobby still seeks his new home
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An update - and my absence in recent weeks
Yesterday, Weymouth
Learning from the others - Community Rail
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