Great Western Coffee Shop

The day has finally arrived.  A mixture of 30 passengers, rail staff, local civic dignitaries and the media were assembled on the platform at Melksham for the first of the new services.

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The departure board sprung into life about 10 minutes before the train was due thanks to some quick work on the telephone by the assembled FGW officials

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Around half those on the platform joined the service doubling the number already on the train who had boarded at Westbury and Trowbridge.

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Service pauses for the obligatory photographs

We left Melksham a couple of minutes late and then paused briefly waiting to join the main line at Thingley Junction while a late running service from Weston-super-Mare passed and we arrived in Swindon three minutes down - but no-one missed a connection as a result.

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No platform sharing today - TransWilts are using Platform 1 at Swindon

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A new message for the screens

Several 'real' passengers then joined the service for the return to Westbury via Melksham
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"DM" is Down Main - not Down to Melksham!

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Nice to see the timetable posters have been updated

Undoubtedly a day for celebration - and a proud day for one set of parents waiting on the platform as their son was driving the train.  However in a sense the real work begins now - the two years covered by the funding will fly by.  The service has to prove its popularity day to day.  Certainly the enthusiasm is there, it is now a case of turning that into passengers.

Fantastic stuff and huge congratulations to Graham and others that have put in so much of their time over the years, with numerous setbacks, to achieve today's pivotal moment.  I really hope (and expect) that the service will be a roaring success and become even better over time with a later evening service to and from Swindon on weekdays the obvious way of improving it further. 

I look forward to taking a trip down there myself sometime soon.

I can't do more than wholeheartedly concur with II's comments.  Many congratulations to Graham and all involved in putting 7 years of wrong to right.

It's good to see Graham in the publicity photo line up.  He deserves the recognition after all the hard work.  And well done to all the rest of the team.  I hope the community now use the service so long and hard fought for.

Excellent news. Can't believe it has finally happened!

Today was ... significantly busier than we might have guessed.  Santa was sold out - we limited ticket sales for safety reasons and had to turn possible customers away.  The launch service was busy.  But - so significant - the intermediate service did well too.  Up to 33 "regular customer" - that's excluding our team members in the afternoon, on a train that didn't exist last week. A good number were localish traffic, and a good number were connecting through.

On behalf of all of the TransWilts team here in Wiltshire, thank you for your words of congratulation.  Good to have ... 8 people all good long and hardworking ... on Santa; and that's just a tip of the iceberg. A fantastic day - a time indeed to say "thank you" - from me too everyone; at times I'm embarrassed by just how much people do to help - and that includes (in the present tense) First Great Western and Wiltshire Council.  It's one team.

Yet as well as seeing the dawn of a new era, we should be (and are considering) the growth of that era.  "Use it or loose it" is already the soundbite.   We don't know exactly where we're headed (this is the first essentially new train service I have helped promote), so we've already pasted in a review and planning meeting on 30th December.  Those of you who are involved in voluntary groups will know what an extraordinary date and commitment that is in the middle of the Christmas break.

I could write about these plans - and ongoing stuff even from today (Sunday) - but really I need to sleep tonight ... and prepare for another big day in the morning peak.   I'll be taking my own first "real" use of the service tomorrow afternoon - half past four from Melksham, as the first leg of a long distance journey that would have been taxi or lift had it been last week.

I, too, was there to witness the start of the much improved service between Westbury and Swindon. I boarded the first of the new services at Westbury, along with Lee from this forum, a couple of other passengers and a few FGW 'suits'. Numbers swelled noticeably at Trowbridge and off we trundled up the single line toward Melksham, tucking into the complementary mince pies and mulled wine laid on by FGW.

As you will have already seen, there was a welcoming committee at Melksham! I completed a round trip up to Swindon and back down to Westbury and then headed off to the west country for the afternoon.

I have a fair few photos from the day that I'll post tomorrow (bit too tired to edit and upload tonight) including more of Santa, from later in the day, where I again joined a TransWilts service from Swindon down to Melksham and then another (!!!) back up to Chippenham before heading home to Bristol.

My congratulations to all those who have campaigned tirelessly over the past seven years to see this day dawn. Well done all!!!

Thanks must also go to Wiltshire County Council, for the funding, and to First Great Western, as the operator. Also thanks to those FGW staff who were operating the TransWilts services today.

From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-25290051):

Not sure if that qualifies as a wrong use of a stock photo.  There were diverted HSTs along the TransWilts today - but not with that exact livery!  ;D

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congratulations to everyone for all of the hard work put in so far to get this service back up and running. Now  its over to the passengers , staff and supporters of this line to make sure the new services are a sucess.

Hopefully in  12 months or so another look could be made to see whether or not a later service from Swindon should be provided after 2200 to allow passengers coming back on later services from London to eget a direct train to Melksham.

Some further pictures and comment from me about yesterday - and this morning's commuter services - at
http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4219_TransWilts-train-services-up-from-2-to-8-per-day.html

And my first business trip as a true user of the service to get from "M" to "T" will be on the 16:31 this afternoon.

On 30th December, we have a review meeting to see how it's gone so far, to set out a community business plan for the next year, with a look further ahead too ... and who knows what may happen.   But for the moment, let's concentrate on making it work.  We're looking to reach the people who aren't familiar with train travel - and on that basis much of the activity is way from the trains and stations ...

Well done Graham (and everyone else in the team that made this happen)

I wish the line every success.

Congratulations to everyone who made this happen.  The photographs definitely make it clear that "normal passengers" are using the service, not just those involved in the campaign or rail enthusiasts.

Do I get bonus points for spotting the back of bignosemac's head?

Yep, I heard about that; we're a close knit user's community.  To some extent we can say "teething troubles", and we expect a few; two trains in the bay has been an unusual manoeuvre for the last seven years.  I'm sure someone's taken a look at whether the procedures are all ok these days (I'm not sure what's changed in recent years since it was commonly done) .

Apart from our own team here, this has rather passed under the enthusiast's radar.  That's possibly because it's not seen as a reopening, but rather as 'just' a change in service level.   So no hoards of bashers.  As far as I'm concerned, those enthusiasts / bashers are very welcome, but it's there choice as to how they see it.  Much more important the general traffic as there's orders of magnitude more of it, and it's there for an economic / wider social reason which strengthens the "retain / improve" case which we must never forget!

Grahame
I'm sure many contributors will be keen to know how numbers are (hopefully) building up. Will you be able to pass on any usage figures in due course, or other indication of how traffic volumes are building? (A bit like the excellent Tarka Rail passenger stats, maybe.)

Nope. That's not me looking at one of Santa's helpers. I was on the Santa special as it headed back to Melksham, but stayed standing (mostly out the way) in the rear coach.

From  The Melksham Independent News (http://melkshamnews.com/2013/12/11/campaigner-urges-locals-to-use-new-melkshams-transwilts-service/)

Excellent ... and I hope there are some pictures too ;-) ... I don't think they appear on MIN news feeds online such as this one, and I know they have some!

More from  Melksham Independent News (http://melkshamnews.com/2013/12/11/all-aboard-melkshams-new-rail-service/)


NB: Caption as shown on the website, despite being incorrect....

Oh we get all sorts - my favourite of the day - "TransWilts Community Rain Partnership" - we'll be appealing for the end of the drought next year  ;D

I travelled on the 14.14 from Westbury yesterday, one of about half a dozen passengers, and while I appreciate it is hardly likely to be the busiest train of the day I was truly appalled - at neither Westbury or Swindon, apart from the times on the departure sheets, there was absolutely no publicity whatsoever for the increased service, and as far as I could see nothing on any of the intermediate stations.
;
 

Big timetable poster on Platform 2 at Westbury, with another slightly less bold one in the Subway. The former may only just have gone up, admittedly, but the latter has been there for days, with a similar one up at Melksham.

Mike,  It's incredible how much publicity is needed to reach people!  We've had the issue with the Melksham Campus that I'm involved with - 12 different information flows and still people say "we didn't know / hear about it".  And there has had to be a tradeoff between putting timetables out early, with people turning up for trains not yet running, and having a rather more gentle start than we would have liked in the first week or two.

All the standard industry 'stuff' is there - and some posters too.   Editorial in local papers, local radio, local TV. Whole page adverts in some local papers.  Information in some TICs, libraries, town halls, more to follow.   Web sites such as this, twitter feeds, blogs. House to house deliveries.   Connecting Wiltshire Personal Journey planners telling people about it.

Gosh - I sound like I am defending what has been done; that's NOT my intent.   My intent is to give you an idea of where we are, to tell you we are active, and that we are not complacent either.   There's much more to be done yet, too.  7 more boxes of literature arrived with us yesterday - that's topping up the first seven that had run out.  You may not see much activity at stations, and wonder "what the *** are they up to" ... lots of that is because we're not looking to abstract rail users from other services, but rather to bring in new user from other means of transport such as cars.   And the stations are not the place to promote such use.

We're at the new, thin end, or a wedge at the moment.   Learning by talking to travellers - both newcomers, transfers, and how it's effecting previous users too. And wedging in further with marketing.   People need to feel the comfort of continuity and repetitiveness before they will buy in, and so we're reinforcing the message in lots of ways.  And the DfT, via Wiltshire Council, are providing 2 years of seed grant under LSTF because they know just how long the update ramp may be.   Make no mistake, we're just at the start if a curve

First let-down today:-
18 32 Westbury to Swindon and 20 12 return Cancelled Traincrew shortages.  Cardiff to Portsmouth route also affected for this reason.

Noted ... Passengers on the 18:32 have an alternative service about an hour later; the 20:12 is somewhat more problematic as the last train of the day, and may bring some ^20 business for the taxi drivers at Chippenham Station.

Pity ... if everything runs tomorrow, we'll have a 98% running record for the first week, with (to my knowledge) around 94% running on time or quite close to it.  On Monday morning, a track circuit failure at Bradford Junction held up the first train by just under 10 minutes. One morning, the 08:49 off Swindon got held at Thingley for a freight train coming up the other way, (seriously enough for one user trying it for the first time to decide it was unreliable and declare he wouldn't use it again), and one lunch time there was an issue at Swindon which delayed the departures (and, I'm sorry, a couple of main line trains!).

For the first week, not bad - a couple of learning experiences which can be things to be aware of in the future, hopefully with a view to avoiding them happen again. 

Bus replacement will operate in place of both the 1832 & 2012 services, calling at all stations.

Also, the passenger who declared that he wouldnt use it again has been back on board since after his employer urged him to stick with it.

Full marks for that employer.  They sound like the kind of business I want to support.

It was a woeful day across the FGW network. I happened to pick this day to visit the Melksham line! ::) :D

The packed 10.45 from Paddington departed on time but soon the brakes were slammed on and we crawled through West London.
We finally shuddered to a stop at Slough. Dozy passengers on the train started leaning out of the windows, thinking it was Reading (it was ~20 minutes after leaving Pad to be fair!) leading the panicked guard to make an announcement. Passengers on the platform, who were expecting the Oxford service, attempted to board, leading to further delay as the doors had to be checked.

We were then abruptly shunted onto the relief lines and crawled at the lower top speed to Twyford, with other HSTs speeding past on the main lines. After Twford we were shunted back much to our relief. The breaks were slammed on again for no apparent reason at Didcot (perhaps the Oxford had overtaken us when we were on the reliefs and was having to wait - but why?) and we crawled through the station.

On arrival at Swindon just under half and hour late ( >:( ), the network was in meltdown. Digital Doris was apologising for one train after another and most trains on the screen were 25 late.

I took the 12.49 from Swindon, which didn't turn up until after 1pm. According to the apologetic guard, this was because of a problem at Bradford UA which was causing "chaos" at Westbury. About 11 people got off the incoming service. I and six others boarded. At Chippenham five more boarded. At Melksham two people and I got off, with two getting on. Not massive, but not bad for an off peak service.

The info screen was displaying an error message, so I and another passenger had to press the info button to ask when the next train was. The car park was full, although I'd imagine mostly by shoppers...

The stock running the service was a clapped out 153 that had clearly not had much maintenance (probably ex ATW or CT). The train was definitely struggling to stay at 75 mph on the main line with the engine sometimes spluttering out. We lost time in between each station.

Arriving just after 1.30, around 15 minutes late, I just had enough time for a cup of tea before the return. However, disaster almost struck. Despite normally having a good sense of direction, lack of signage meant that I took a wrong turn on the way back to the station and ended up at ASDA. Signage needs to be made clearer to encourage visitors from the town centre.

After a dash across a dual carriageway and along a muddy verge, I arrived at the station. Luckily the 2.30 was running 10 minutes late, according to the screen, which had now fixed itself. Unfortunately, a few moments later is just switched off and went blank! This screen needs sorting ASAP.

The 2.30 arrived - one person got off, I got on; there were five others on board. It seems to me that most people are using the route as a quicker way to Swindon and not many using it for Melksham. Presumably this will improve.

At Chippenham were we arrived even later due to the unit struggling (I doubt the later services were cancelled due to traincrew shortages, more like the 153 finally gave up!), I got off, no-one got on.

After another cup of tea in Chippenham, I took the 3.25 back to London. This train arrived late, so I happened to see the next departure to Melksham. Four people boarded. I didn't spot how many other were onboard.

The 3.25 train was full and standing and seemed to crawl for most of the way, arriving late at about 5pm. I really don't know why they bothered upgrading the GW line to 125mph - the trains barely reach to 125 before the next red signal. When you consider that Chiltern get to Banbury in 50 minutes. Which is further than Oxford (plus on a congested 2 track, 100 mph railway), you wonder what's going on with FGW.

Overall verdict: encouraging. Good timetable, hopefully can become hourly at some point with some facilities at Melksham station. Hopefully 100mph stock can be used eventually to slash the journey time on the mainline.

Well, I hope I've done my bit to add to the passenger numbers! 8)

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P77069/2013/12/13/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P77070/2013/12/13/advanced

It doesn't seem like the services were losing time between stations to me. The fact is at prolonged periods of 75mph running the 153 will seem like it's working very hard, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's struggling.

Indeed the up service managed an average of 70moh stop to pass from Chippenham to Rushey Platt, which is not bad at all. Though if on time the following HST would have been snapping at its heels by then, so no time to dilly-dally.

I've been travelling up and down the line for most of the week chatting with passengers (with, I have to say, a tremendous amount of support from FGW staff at all levels, who very clearly want to see the improved services work) so I will answer a few of the points here if I may:


If you are referring to Melksham station car park, experience so far suggests that it is being used almost exclusively for rail-related purposes. For example, the 0728 Westbury-Swindon & 1736 Swindon-Westbury peak services are said to be doing well, with reports of anywhere between 30-60 passengers per train, including reports into double figures at Melksham.


There are blue walking route signs from Melksham town centre to the station, but these are a few years old now. I know that Wiltshire Council have ongoing plans to improve access to Melksham station over the coming months, and I will mention this to them on Monday.


Yes, we have had a number of reports of this happening with the help screen. To my knowledge FGW have already performed 2 fixes over the past week, and I will include this latest occurrence in my report to them today.


Experience so far suggests that the origin/destination mix has varied from service to service. However we shouldn't ignore the positive impact of improved direct links from Swindon/Chippenham through to Trowbridge/Westbury and vice versa. Of course, some will undoubtably point out that you could do these journeys by rail already, but what we are experiencing is a significant (in relative terms) proportion of traffic of this nature that is entirely new to rail - because passengers were put off by the time and effort that changing elsewhere entails. The fact that FGW have chosen to offer cheaper fares for direct travel clearly helps as well.

I'd agree with you though that we would like to see the gradual development of passenger numbers at Melksham continue from its initial starting base. CRP publicity policy is designed to assist this process, with CRP letter/FGW timetable drops already completed to households in 5 areas of Melksham, with a sixth due to be completed today. This is on top of business visits, an ad in the Melksham Independent News, Tourist Information Centre assistance, a Melksham Area Board presentation, along with probably a whole host of other activities that I haven't mentioned that grahame will no doubt fill you in on.

That's not to say that we've neglected other areas of course - household deliveries have also taken place in Chippenham & Trowbridge (more to follow) and an ad has gone in the White Horse News in Westbury. People have been active in Swindon and elsewhere. As with Melksham, publicity policy in other areas will continue and evolve.


Thankyou for visiting. Its been really encouraging to see a number of forum members, all of whom have been hugely supportive of the TransWilts cause over the years, try out the trains over the past week, and on a personal level I remain proud to be a part of it.

Delighted you visited, BTline.   

Some comments ... bit illogical and not well formatted as I'm travelling ...

We expect to see traffic build rather more quickly from people who already use the train from time to time than from newcomers, so a build up in through traffic is likely to dwarf Melksham traffic at present, and indeed it makes a significant difference for Westbury / Trowbridge to Chippenham / Swindon passengers.

Various station and access improvements at Melksham are planned - I'll take a look at the underpass when I get back (in Germany at the moment!).  But, this might surprise you, big improvements already this month.  Fresh lick of paint on the shelter (pity someone flyposted a notice there which damaged the new paintwork - there are some idiots about!),  directions at the station to the town centre, a timetable much more appropriate to the line, freshly marked access and parking.  And there's more to come - something next week if it's on schedule.

The Marketing at Melksham has been laregly away from the station.  We need to get people there to the station in the first place, and Lee has described much of that.  We have "more of the same", line brochure, flyers in paper, program for the year 2014, all planned.   The interetsing question for Swindon and Chippenham is how to reach those people who are heading South (rather than Londonward or Bristolward).

It's never an ideal time to "launch" a product, but I could suggest that 8th December is almost calculated to be a tricky date.  But it does let any little teething problems get ironed out before people start their fresh new year of community, and long before leisure traffic builds up in the spring.

P.S. Timetable works in capacity terms with a 153 after electrification.  100 mph stock would slash two minutes ;-)

TransWilts is very much 'work in progress'.   There were things that could not be even started until we were 100% certain we would get additional trains, and they're still underway.   There are other things that couldn't be started / done until the trains arrived.   There are other things to wait until just after the Christmas season, or until we have people making more leisure trips ...

I agree this service is still a work in progress however I think many improvements are still to come including additional capacity in the form of 2 carriage dmu's perhaps class 150's or even 165/166 the latters 90mph capabilitiy and wide doors should help improve reliability by keeping them out of the way of the hst's and reduce dwell times.

We might even get a shock one day and the line through Melksham is electrified so we cna have a emu shuttling between Westbury and Swindon. Hopefully at some point a passing loop will be installed along the branch along with the junctions being modifed at either end which will further help improve reliability of the line.


At some point in the future I hope we see the proposed station @ Royal Wotton Bassett being constructed.

Anthony, things certainly don't stand still; we know already that trains and services will look very different in the South West in 2020 to they will in 2015, and perhaps will look different again by 2025.  Indeed the first interesting change comes when the Cheltenham Spa to London service becomes hourly, taking the fill in 15x units away from the Stroud Valley.  What will happen to those TransWilts trains which currently run through there?   Prior to this week, they were hard to "sell" south of Swindon, giving far too long a commuting day into there.  Now the 07:20 off Melksham has a commute balancing 17:36 from Swindon, and people can catch the 18:50 off Swindon having travelled up on the 07:48, or the 10:03, or a lunchtime train.

The eyes are, indeed, looking well ahead. But concentrating, in this formative period of the new service, in making that work.  We are learning a lot already, and it's at this early formative time that so much can be learnt and perhaps quickly acted on.

But an interesting thought. I'm travelling from Thun to Melksham at the moment.  Every train so far has been electric and has had Wifi.  Coming into Eindhoven in 20 minutes time now, our train from Venlo to Den Haag will be across the platform from the Maastrict to Amsterdam service, and a third to a half of the passengers will swap each way.  In 5 minutes both services will carry on.  Happens every hour; I don't need the timetable.   Now - can you imagine electric trains from Bristol and Swindon arriving into Westbury, doing a similar swap of passengers, before carrying on to Weymouth and Southampton?

All sounds great, I'm sure the service will be a success. I'll travel again in the future (from the Westbury direction) and give you marks out of ten for improvements / if I end up at Asda...  :P

I think the key signage that needs to be fixed is at Bath Road. I veered left instead of heading for the underpass.

Trust me, that 153 was struggling! I commuted for 7 years on sprinters, have spoken to drivers and have ridden in a cab of a 150 unit that couldn't go above 50 mph (on a long stretch of 75 mph railway). I can tell good ones from bad.

Upgrading to 100 mph units would be good if not just for the main line reliability. Think about it, even slashing 2 minutes would allow a call at a new station (WB?) without any impact, greatly increasing passenger numbers.

I've not logged in for a while, but want to wish Grahame and all others involved, congratulations on helping to achieve this much improved service. Well done to all involved!

Why - on behalf of the whole team - thank you. It feels very much like the start of a new, and much more enjoyable, useful and forward looking era with everyone pulling together.  The new era still brings much for us to do ... do look us up occasionally, add in the odd comment please as appropriate, and introduce yourself if you see any of us on the trains.

Full circle - back in Thun this morning. But this time travelling further and seeing what's beyond!

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/backthun.jpg)

10 years on - a little event at Westbury. Health warning - I have been asked to speak. No doubt it will be trimmed from this, which I will be giving wider view to later http://grahamellis.uk/lib/tenyearson.pdf

Preparations underway at Westbury

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Good to see nice weather for the occasion.

Some more photos from the ceremony

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Joe Graham - Business Assurance Director GWR

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Graham Ellis

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Horace Prickett - TransWilts CIC Board member

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The GWR calendar - is it on your wall yet? ;D

Ha! I now have two - having bought one earlier.   Will no doubt end up in someone's (rather large) Christmas stocking.

Thanks for the calendar, Bob!