Great Western Coffee Shop

When a group of us were discussing what an "appropriate service" going forward for the TransWilts actually meant (looking back a few years now) there was some question as to whether we meant "every 2 hours" or "every hour" - and indeed the acceptance of a trial service with a train every 2 hours was more on the basis of thinking that would be enough to persuade enough people to use the trains rather than necessarily being optimal - there were those who though it was appropriate, and those who though it was enough, but what we could realistically get at this point and still thin.

Having reached year 1 targets in 17 weeks, and being more than 50% over fifth year target at the end of the first full year, and hearing on a further 43% rise January 2015 on January 2014 ... I'm going to suggest that numbers will continue to grow for some time yet,  provided other constraints don't get in the way.   So where does that leave us in terms of what an appropriate service might be after the completion of electrification through Swindon / Chippenham, after the recasting of Plymouth services through Westbury, and after the completion of other schemes such as the high tech campus of Bath Spa in Wiltshire, the new use for former RAF Lyneham, and the ongoing development of business and tourist attractions in the south of the county?

Perhaps this is how the service network may look?

(http://atrebatia.info/vision2020map.jpg)

There's a logical bringing together of a number of ideas and flows - a number of cases at various stages and having an eye cast over them by all sorts of experts in various fields.  Taking year on year growth and looking ahead, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the changes you'll notice actually come off - and that with it there's a connected / connecting public road transport element too.

Take a look here (http://www.transwilts.org) - very much early stage as far as web site / presentation is concerned, but a number of people are coming together in the ways that the passenger flows come together ... so watch this space!

It's very impressive. I like the layout, and the interactive features.

Presumably, not many services will be run by APT? ;D

I do like the idea of "Stonehenge Parkway".  :D

Could it be that this was the original purpose of the stone circle? An interchange for horse-drawn chariots from all over the land^ like all the National Express coaches congregating at Digbeth bus station 5,000 years later!

Things have been very much moving forward since I posted here on 22nd March ... the following day (!) the new First contract / operation agreement through to 2019 was announced, and that's looking forward to further TransWilts improvements  from 2017, rather than the trail service stopping at the end of the trial. 

These further improvements ARE needed - the growth has far exceeeded expectations, and it continues (we're counting for latest figures this week).   I noted the my wife and I took a 16 day, 25 pieces of public transport trip in the last month and we only had to stand three times - from King's Cross to Paddington (underground), from Barcelona Port to City Centre (bus) and from Melksham to Chippenham (Train).

Studies are underway / plans being looked at for Corsham; http://transwilts.org/tw/news/87-corsham-survey for survey summary and http://transwilts.org/tw/images/pdf/Corsham_Survey_Result_Summary_2015.pdf for longer report on it.

A Wilton Parkway survey is now open - http://transwilts.org/tw/news/91-wilton-parkway-station-survey-open - and additional discussions working towards more detailed procedures and looking to put things in and through the various GRIP stages.

Wilton Parkway seems to work very well indeed on many fronts, as does joining up the TransWilts service with others which use similar stock south of Westbury; from Swindon, Chippenham, Trowbridge, Westbury and Warminster a direct train to Southampton Airport can do so much for the economy of these towns.  Checkins at Southampton are much quicker and there's far less walking that at Heathrow (for example), and travelling to Bristol Airport from Wiltshire isn't all that easy by Public Transport.  For sure, there are buses from both Bath and Bristol.

With South West Trains proposing two extra trains between Westbury and Salisbury per day from December, you could end up with five Waterloo to "Stonehenge Parkway" trains ...

P.S.  Some readers may not have noticed the appearance of a direct service from Trowbridge to Southampton Airport Parkway on Mondays to Fridays at 20:53.   Portent of things to come?

There's a link from there to a more general TransWilts survey which includes "Freshbrook" in the drop down list of station names...