What I'm looking at is purely September, but the First response is the right company, and that's as close as anyone has come. 

An aside issue ... I know that some forums have rules about not linking to other forums, nor even mentioning them.   We don't.  There are different twitter feeds, facebook groups, and forums out there and I hope that our members feel as free to discuss what's on Railforum or Wnxx as they do to discuss what The Daily Mirror is saying about rail travel or what they see for themselves at Readng or Avoncliff.

I'm going to promote this up the order - and give you a hint that September might be a unique time of year for this activity!

For the benefit of guests and newcomers to The Coffee Shop ...

"Frequent Posters Club" is an area which can only be read (and contributed to) by members once they have passed a certain threshold of contributions.  The area is used for discussions of things like meet ups, and members can be a little more open there with things like their movements, real names, phone numbers etc as they're writing amongst friends / contacts who they're had a chance to read and get to know.  Frequent Posters account for less that 4% of posts on this forum.

For those with access, you can read on at:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=12925.msg139607

For those who can't yet read on - keep posting.  Once you cross the threshold, you'll be able to see Frequent Posters right back to when it started!

A sort-of close to this story of the summer of 2013

On Bank Holiday Monday (27th May), the morning southbound train was retimed to give a good day trip opportunity to Weymouth.   Notices were displayed at Melksham and Chippenham Station (but NOT at Swindon as we feared overcrowding) and we ended up with a packed but not uncomfortable train, and good loadings on the connection to Weymouth and back, and with a packed train again from Westbury in the late afternoon.

On Bank Holiday Monday (26th August), the morning southbound train was retimed to give a day trip opportunity to Weymouth.  Not quite so ideal, as engineering works at Swindon / Kemble meant it running a bit earlier than ideal and left a longish wait at Westbury.  Publicity was via trifold brochures covering the whole of the service this autumn distributed in the Melksham Independent News.  Again, limited due to our fear of overcrowding, and once again we got packed but not uncomfortable trains.   

I went on both and particularly noted that we had different customers, and those were yet different customer groups from the 2011 crowd.  I conclude that - if we have a strong "day trip to Weymouth" product in 2014 - we will have three different markets to sell it to.

Early indications are that an off peak day trip will be possible, all year, on Mondays to Fridays - a little longer change than I would like at Westbury, but never mind. 

On Saturdays, the 19:32 Westbury to Swindon isn't expected to run (even come across a Sunday to Friday train before?), but in any case the Heart of Wessex overloads already on a Saturday and it's doubtful if we'll be thanked if we throw hundreds more people down there on their busiest day

Sundays ... the train back is good.  I've not yet seen summer 2014 proposals under LSTF^▸ (Local Sustainable Transport Fund) for the morning train, but the case that supported the bid, and was in option 1 of the aborted franchise, included an extra Sunday morning TransWilts service with an explicit requirement for it to connect to Weymouth.

I was speaking to the incoming manager of the Melksham TIC^▸ (Tourist Information Centre) yesterday ... "if I had a pound for everyone who's asked me about trains to Weymouth this summer, I could retire" ...

An update 'brief' ... as written to a new correspondent today asking about Chippenham to Trowbridge links.

From London and the Thames Valley all across the South West and into South Wales, the current franchise extension expires on 16th October and it hasn't yet been announced as to whom will be running the trains thereafter. In all probability it will be First group, as the only bidder for the management contract to run trains for the following 30 month period, but there is an outside chance it would be Directly Operated Rail - run by the Department for Transport.  Part of the service level requested in either case is to continue to run services as they are at present more or less, but adapting and adopting as engineering works, electrification, modernisation etc continue, where those items are already in the pipeline.

One such issue in the pipeline is Wiltshire Council's successful LSTF^▸ (Local Sustainable Transport Fund) bid for improving Wiltshire's Rail Offering, and a very great deal of work has been done between First, Wiltshire Council and many other components of the rail industry to have things in place for an improved services north to south across Wiltshire. But nothing in that can irrevocably be signed off until after the government decides who's operating trains, and under what terms. across the whole south west. Even then fallout from those negotiations needs to be considered, not least how a three year plan can be signed up to be a company that may only be around for two and a half.   One thing we do know is that an additional train running on otherwise-unoccupied paths between Swindon and Westbury is feasible by the end of the year, but a recast  involving other services too (such as would be needed south of Westbury) is not - that's something that probably best for the next franchise holder.

I believe that all parties concerned want this to work and do not see talks / contracts breaking down or failing to materialise, and on that basis I would expect to see 6 extra trains from Westbury to Swindon on Monday to Friday between the 07:04 and 19:32, which are currently the only trains that serve the Chippenham - Trowbridge line, and six services in the opposite direction.  Also six extra trains each way on Saturday, and 4 each way on Sunday.

South of Westbury, there's at least one train per hour for passengers who with to continue their journey to and from Salisbury - some of the proposed services connect well and other don't, largely as a result of working out a robust timetable for the additional trains without altering anything else.

The links [elsewhere in my letter] lead to provision timings, and the trains have now appeared on the First Great Western ticket booking pages too - take a look at a journey starting on 8th or 9th December;  that strikes me as a vote of confidence that the improvement will go ahead and a lot of us are very busy behind the scenes helping make sure we'll have a joined up service and not something which just appears as if by magic, which no-ne knows about, and could disappear just as quickly.   But it's about 2 months too early to start circulating timetables as "definite".

Yeah ... I spotted that too and have moved Dorchester from the Irish sea off Rosslare to the Dorset countryside inland from Weymouth.     There are 145 possible terminating stations in our database ... and the first time a train turns bak somewhere new, I'm reactive.

So does that mean a possible penalty fare or even prosecution for having a flat battery?

I have added MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) and BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) (that's Members of Parliament and British Transport Police - NOT Military Police and ...) and also provided a one-liner and a link to each of the public facing enquiry organisations, at:

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4173_.html

Do take a look, and let me know of anything missed off / inaccuracies;  it's currently a blog article but may become more permanent as a point of reference ...

Mention of the Oxford Airbus got me thinking:
National Express - 11:00 or 15:45 from Heathrow, into Great Malvern at 16:35 or 19:55.  One change on the way - Cheltenham or Birmingham.  Cost - 20.40 or 33.10 (adult)

What does FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site offer at around the same time:
Heathrow Connect 10:57, Change Hayes and Harlington and Slough, arrive 14:00. Cost - 50.00
Heathrow Express 11:03, Change Paddington, Euston and New Street, arrive 15:44. Cost - 85.60

And I'll bet I can buy a National Express ticket at Heathrow all the way to Great Malvern.

The story would/will  be so different with a West-facing train service from Heathrow to an interchange for longer distance journeys (Reading!)

I met up with the Station Manager based in Westbury yesterday, who is very helpful indeed, to go through a whole lot of matters - many are just confirming how we're going along and planning for potential changes which in terms of passenger number at stations will proportionately change most at Melksham.

The line-of-route timetables are usually provided [all that is provided] at smaller stations; destination sheets at bigger ones.  On many branch lines, that seems the natural approach to me as people want to go up to the junction and perhaps beyond to other major points.   At random, I called up the Exmouth line timetable and it shows the line itself and Paddington, Paignton, Plymouth and Barnstaple beyond. Seems sensible.

Specifically for Melksham, the line-of-route sheet - Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff - has a natural bias toward the trains on the main route and doesn't clearly show some of the most common journeys such as Melksham to Bristol Temple Meads; you CAN work out the "Change at Trowbridge" options by reading two different panels, but "Change at Chippenham" options are impossible to learn about at the station without pressing the "information" button and asking!     Perhaps the reason that line-of-route fails at Melksham is that it's not a traditional branch line station offering services to a single junction - passengers will be travelling not only to the four major places that every departing train serves, but also connecting in significant numbers from each and every one of those places to other destinations.

First bus 41 at 16:10 to Falmouth, change to First bus 230, arrive 17:12

First but 42 at 16:23 to Pool, change to First bus 34, arrive 17:20

National Express 504 at 16:25, change at Camborne to First bus 45, arrive 17:31

via http://www.connectingwiltshire.co.uk/

That's an excellent point ... if I think more about what I / we have been told, it's sounding rather more like an excuse than a valid reason.

September 2012 - underpants
September 2013 - cans of baked beans

a) What am I talking about (yes, it is travel related)
b) What about September 2014

As I recall, that's not going to be easy at Paddington