Great Western Coffee Shop

It's a 25 minute rail journey from Melksham to Swindon by train, and I'm going up there tomorrow to attend a "Social Enterprise and the Railways" conference - so what better way than to go by train?

Train

Well - it turns out that the train's a bit of a problem.  After the 19:50 tonight, which gets in to Swindon at 20:20 (yes, that one dawdles an extra 5 minutes), First Great Western aren't offering any more services that arrive until after the 10:00 arrival that I need.  And returning, I would need to leave an hour before the end of the event to catch the 15:29 ... or hand around in Swindon until the next train at 21:05 - back into Melksham at 21:30 making my trip to Swindon to attend a 6 hour conference that's less than 30 miles from home last nearly 26 hours if I did "the whole" by rail.

Bus and Train

How about using the bus service from Melksham up to Chippenham and getting on the train there.   When the First group withdrew most of the train services to Melksham at the tail of 2006, they did alter the 234 bus route to provide a link at Chippenham Station - so I've looked up that option.  The 09:42 train from Chippenham gets me in to Swindon at 09:57 - it's an hourly service tomorrow but that timing is ideal.  Now - what aboout the 234?  Oh - that's not quite hourly and gets into Chippenham at 09:51 - 6 minutes after the train has left, or 08:39, giving me an excessive 63 minutes to change.  Total journey time - 08:13 (Melksham) to 09:57 (Swindon) - 104 minutes.  Distance 28 miles, average speed 16.15 m.p.h.

Is the return journey any better?  Yes - the !7;25 train gets to Chippenham at 17:38 - 4 minutes AFTER the bus has left - but there's "only" a 56 minute wait for the next bus - the 18:34 whcih gets me to my home town of Melksham 1t 18:56. Total journey time - 91 minutes.  Distance 28 miles, average speed 18.46 m.p.h

Driving

I really prefer to use public transport, but time is money (A motorist's time is 44p per minute according to the DfT).  The AA tells me "42 minutes" and I'm sure I'll complete the journey, even allowing for jams on the A350, in less than the time that First would KEEP ME WAITING at Chippenham station!

Is First's public transport service designed to fail?

Poor Grahame you've fogotten the Governments policy of competition  in public transport buses versus trains  and the private car.

You can't expect buses and trains to connect because they are in competition and are profit making organisations. They have to compete against the private car which we have an absolute right to drive wherever and whenever we want at heavily subsidised prices.

Stupid yes but we'll all be under water before any polititian is brave enough to do something about other than tinker round the edges.