Great Western Coffee Shop

Journey stats to and from the WWRUG Committee meeting in the White Horse Room at Westbury Station (First time I have used it)

18:01 Melksham to Westbury
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/20210803_1801.jpg)
24 off at Melksham, 3 on
12 off front carriage (guess 12 off 2nd / rear carriage) at Trowbridge
10 off a Westbury
.... so around 57 passenger on the train ex Chippenham - 60/24

20:06 Westbury to Melksham
(http://www.wellho.net/pix/20210803_2006.jpg)
About 10 per carriage (so 30 passengers on) into Melksham
9 off and 4 waiting on platform
... so 34/13

And that's midweek day (Tuesday) during the summer holidays while still recovering from Covid

At 18:01
* there were five cars waiting to pick people up
* there were two cars in the car park (don't know whether or not one left)

At 20:20
* no cars picking up
* one of the cars still in the car park - left with driver + passenger both off train
* The other 7 walked away from the station area up Station Approach

That is a significant change from what we would have seen pre-Covid.  Passenger numbers remain somewhat down; cars leaving the car park at that time are not just down but decimated.  On a similar day in 2019 I would have guessed that 9 or 10 cars would have left the car park at this time, rather than 0 or 1.  And those 9 or 10 added to the 24 passengers, bearing in mind it's peak holiday season, would have brought us up to about 35 people off the train.  Typical line / service loading history is that for every passenger who get off or on at Melksham, there are two through passengers.  So we would be looking at around 100 to 110 users of that train on the section unique to the TransWilts.

In other words - our none-driver commuter traffic is doing pretty well - it's the car drivers lost at present.  Proviso - I suspect that Tuesday is a very common day indeed for people who only visit their office a couple of times a week now.  So Monday and Friday figures may not be as good.