Yesterday (back today) I attended the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) / Community Rail conference in Devon ... you've seen a few slides from others.  This was my first attendance at such an event - I understand they're annual, but of course I'm very much the 'new kid on the block' and went along to network and learn.

Some excellent contacts made.  Some issues much better discussed face to face rather than by email or phone have been sucessfully resolved.  And a very great deal was learned.

Here are some pictures from the day - mostly slides but a few others. Those slides speak for themselves - but if you have questions, please ask and I'll do my best to fill in (or perhaps other members who were present will).

Further meetings coming up - Friday and Tuesday for me as we put together the response to the franchise consultation, now much clearer in the best approach in some of the aspects having listened and learned to the man from the ministry.

Ah ... I concluded that was to help you if you were meeting someone off the train, or joining someone on the train already.    I'm meeting someone on the 08:44 departure from Chippenham tomorrow and it will be re-assuring to be told it's the 07:30 from Paddington 08:30 from Swindon.

As a complete aside, why do announcements tell you how long a train is when it's already standing at the platform?

You also have the issue of some apparently simple components being rather difficult to source ...

http://www.epbpg.co.uk/epbpgpreservation.html

I'm shamelessly bumping up this topic to get YOU to respond today ... I'm at a Community Rail conference tomorrow with the prospect of meeting some bigwigs, and I want to get a flavour for what the working day really is for people these days.   The issues being discussed are likely to be peak train times ... I love people who do shifts as they help to fill trains at other hours, but I'm asking them to sit this one out and celebrate the fact they can get a seat!

Letter sent to Swindon Advertiser ... now that we know how the first weekends went, we can do a bit of marketing of remaining space

It's always struck me from reading the history of the railways how we moved from a system in Victorian times in which accidents were commonplace through to current times in which they are few and far between.   And that's very largely because of the thorough investigations that have been done after each and every accident, and (these days) near miss too. Taking a look at the graphs in the Railfuture article from 2002 and see how the graphs drop with fatalities and accidents halved over a period in which passenger journeys have doubled.

http://www.railwatch.org.uk/backtrack/rw94/rw094p06.pdf

John, you and your parents can look back 50 years on and - at least - take some comfort in knowing that lessons are learned from such events, and that Christine did not die in vain.  That comment doesn't, I know, remove the hurt; most of us here simply can't pretend to imagine ...

We very much appreciate your invitation for this Friday. Many of us will join you in spirit and thoughts that morning, even if not able to be there in person in Stafford.

... and it would also require the little matter of relaying some 10 miles of track ...


... which Network Rail appear to have promised as a certainty - just not yet!

http://www.courier.co.uk/Commuters-rail-upgrade-pleas-falling-deaf-ears/story-21165454-detail/story.html

What's your best example off way-off railway reporting?

It is indeed Oxford, towards the north end of the station looking across to the City.

No. At least not all on the same few days. If we got 150 people joining at Swindon on a 153, what would the 50 at Chippenham and 75 at Melksham do? 

We have a lot more runs this summer.  Weymouth is possible every day of the week from Melksham and further north east.   It's a connection at Westbury not a through train. All of which should help knock the peaks off.   Having seen how it did the first couple of weekends, though, there is scope for a lot more promotion and the summer holidays will bring more out too when there's not school the next day. 

OK --- come on, Cotswold Line types ....

As an educated guess, Stogumber

For today - a pretty Sunday morning in Wiltshire ... only the second Sunday that both morning trains have run, and the first one was in the middle of a Bank Holiday ... so this morning's outward bound traffic was a good thing to look at.

08:52 from Melksham
3 on and 2 off at Melksham -> 19 ... 22/5

09:26 from Swindon
11 on from Swindon
At Chippenham +12 -0
At Melksham +7 -0
so that's 30/7

10:32 Westbury to Swindon
10 on from Westbury
At Trowbridge -3 + 13
At Melksham  +2
So that's 22/6

11:51 from Swindon to Westbury
33 on from Swindon (of whom 17 connected from Didcot or beyond)
-5 +6 at Chippenham
-6 +8 at Melksham
So 42/14 for stats

So over the 4 trains - 116/32. 
Average of 29 people per train using the otherwise unserved Chippenham - Trowbridge section, Average 8 using Melksham Station.

I have details of most journeys  some long distance stuff and a lot of short journeys too ... that's all on the CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) members / friends board;  please ask if you want to be added as a friend to that area 

A pretty Sunday morning in Wiltshire ... only the second Sunday that both morning trains have run, and the first one was in the middle of a Bank Holiday ... so this morning's outward bound traffic was a good thing to look at.

I'm posting here in the CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) area as the individual journeys may be identifiable ... I will post a summary in the public area too

08:52 from Melksham
3 on and 2 off at Melksham -> 19 ... 22/5
WSB^» (Westbury - next trains)-CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains)
TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains)-SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)
TRO-CLJ (Clapham Junction)
WSB-TWI (Twickenham)
WSB-SWI / party of 2
WSB-LHR
WSB-TWI
WSB-TWI
WSB-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) / party of 2
TRO-SLO (Slough) ("Split ticket at Melksham and saved 17 pounds")
TRO-RDG^‡(resolve)
MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains)-SWI / part of 2
WSB-GLC^▸ (Glasgow Central)
WSB-TAU^» (Taunton - next trains)
WSB-PAD
MKM-SWI

09:26 from Swindon
11 on from Swindon
RDG-CLC^▸ (Castle Cary)
SWI-SAL / party of 5
PAD-TRO / party of 2
SWI-WMN^» (Warminster - next trains)
SWI-TRO
SWI-WSB
At Chippenham +12 -0
CPM-CLC
CPM-BRU (Bruton)
CPM-TRO
CPM-WEY / Party of 4
CPM-TRO / Party of 3
CPM-WSB
CPM-TRO
At Melksham +7 -0
MKM-WEY / Party of 2
MKM-TQY
MKM-BTH^» (Bath Spa - next trains)
MKM-TRO
MKM-TRO / Party of 2
so that's 30/7

10:32 Westbury to Swindon
10 on from Westbury
WSB-SWI / Party of 2
WSB-TRO / Party(?) of 3
CCY-SWI
FRO^» (Frome - next trains)-MKM
WSB-SWI
WSB-MKM
WSB-GLC
At Trowbridge -3 + 13
TRO-MKM
TRO-MKM
TRO-CPM
TRO-SWI
TRO-RLS (Leamington Spa)
TRO-SWI / Party of 2
TRO-TWI / Party of 4
TRO-NOR (Norwich)
TRO-SWI
At Melksham
MKM-SWI / Party of 2
So that's 22/6

11:51 from Swindon to Westbury
33 on from Swindon (of whom 17 connected from Didcot or beyond)
-5 +6 at Chippenham
-6 +8 at Melksham
So 42/14 for stats
Journeys ..
SWI-TRO
SWI-MKM / Party of 2
SWI-MKM
PAD-WSB / Party of 8
SWI-MKM / Party of 3
PAD-WSB
SWI-BOA / Party of 2
SWI-WSB / Party of 2
OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-BOA
MHD-TRO
PAD-CPM
SWI-CPM
Staines-TRO
LGW-CPM / Party of 2
SWI-WSB
OXF-CPM
SWI-TRO
SWI-TWO
OXF-TRO
SWI-WMN

CPM-TRO
CPM-SAL
CPM-Penryn
CPM-YPM
CPM-SOU

No  journey data for Melksham joiners as I left the train there.

So over the 4 trains - 116/32. 
Average of 29 people per train using the otherwise unserved Chippenham - Trowbridge section, Average 8 using Melksham Station.
Only the 2nd weekend of the first of these round trips running, remember ...

Done - one was very wrong (about moving a child!)  - sorry - posted mobile


Correct - I'm looking to learn about commuter time trains into Swindon from West Wilts, and back out in the evening, and see what the effect of chaining them from 2017 would be