Great Western Coffee Shop

I have a meeting in Bradford-on-Avon today - 13:00 to around 15:00

Contrast the "to" and "from" timings - the last direct bus of the day returning about 40 minutes before my meeting ens

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/f2boa.jpg)

* If I were to strike it lucky, it can be done in 22 minutes with a change of train in Trowbridge
* Goodness knows when it comes to fares, through ticketing, etc!

Melksham has  a good through service this Saturday. Solihull to Kingswear picking up passengers at 0933.

Easy outward journey!   Good meeting there and we ended up walking to Avoncliff and picking up the Weymouth train from there at 15:14 to Trowbridge at 15:24 ... intending to get the half hourly bus from Trinity Church back into Melksham and forgetting that the service is half hourly except when it isn't  ::) ... gap from 15:11 to 16:08 and not into Melksham until 16:47;  alternative next train at 16:31 and 16:40 into Melksham.   

In the end, caught the Devizes and Swindon bus at 15:34 from the Town Bridge as far as Semington Turnpike at 15:50 and walked from there - a pleasant afternoon for the 3.5kms (more like 4kms the route I took) ... home at about quarter past five but very pleasant.  Could have stayed on the 49 to the bottom of Caen Hill in Devizes and doubled back on the 272 which would have dropped me literally outside home at 16:50

All of which goes to illustrate to those who don't know the area what a complexity we have in public transport, weird options, and gaps in service to challenge us all of which I'm sure are for good reason (like the bus at 15:40 from Trowbridge to Melksham and Chippenham missing 'cause it's on a school run?)

Yes local complexities and a need for local knowledge of the busses is rife. For another example, if you want to get the bus to Fowey from Par station there is a half hourly service, very good. BUT one bus goes from the west side of the road, and the other goes from the east side, directly opposite! No singnage to  advise or direct the unwitting non-local...

I would say that sort of journey and timings is fairly typical for a lot of Wiltshire and other semi-rural areas, having a lot of small and reasonably-sized market towns with many fields in between!

And there are many people worse off than that. There is, for example, no direct bus service between Malmesbury and Cricklade, or Cricklade and Wootton Bassett. In both cases a change has to be made at Swindon, doubling the mileage and of course the theoretical direct fare

Even worse I can think of many a few places in Wiltshire that are 5 miles from the nearest bus stop, and many more where the nearest stop is two or more miles away. And even after someone has walked all that way, there is no guarantee that the bus they find there will take them where they actually want to go.

And these are some of the reasons why it is so unwise to advocate blanket policies such as banning cars in towns or fuel price escalators to deal with issues such as pollution or climate change. If you happen to live on a large urban area where public transport is frequent plentiful, please keep in mind those who0 are not so fortunate.

The other thing to mention about Wiltshire's bus services is when they run

There is a reasonable service during the working day, but after 7pm on weekdays, all day on Sundays and Bank Holidays, the only places you can go by bus from Chippenham are a half-hourly service to Swindon via Calne and Wootton Bassett, and a 90-minute interval subsidised service to Bath via Corham and Box. None of the other routes run on these days

You can also get to Melksham and Devizes by bus in the evenings and on Sundays changing from the x31 to the 273 at the Northey Arms.

There is a difference of course between what you can theoretically do and what it is reasonable or sensible to do. If somebody was absolutely determined to go from Chippenham to Melksham by bus on a Sunday, here are their options:

Chippenham 1000   1130   1300   1430   1600   1720   1840
Box Northey 1044   1214   1344   1514   1644   1800   1920

Box Northey 1127   1327   1527     1727      1927
Melksham Mkt 1150   1350        1550             1750      1950
                     
Melksham Mkt 0938   1138   1338   1538   1738      
Box Northey a 1000   1200   1400   1600   1800      

Box Northey d   1012 1312   1442   1612   1845      
Chippenham   1058 1358   1528   1688   1923      

Shall we just say that some of those connections coulo be improved...

Yep ... and late in the evening during the week it IS reasonable.  I have attended lectures in Chippenham and returned home to Melksham after the last train has left:
22:03 - 23:50 Chippenham (Town Bridge) - Melksham (Market Place)

And the other way:
22:31 - 23:54 Melksham (Market Place) - Chippenham (Town Bridge)

On a Sunday, the train typically makes sense!

What happens if you miss the last bus connection due to no fault of your own?  Is there an advertised minimum connection time at Box Northey?  That 7 minute Sunday one looks a bit risky unless the operator will get you home if you miss it.

The good news is that the two bus stops at the Northey Arms at Box are virtually opposite each other across the main A4, so in theory the minimum connection time should be the time it takes you to cross the road

The othe good news is that Faresaver, the operator of both bus services, has sent a car for me before now when one of their services has gone AWOL. In ither cases they have agreed to pay for a taxi

The bad news is that at that time of day/ night their one office based member of staff on duty would be on a mobile phone and not in the office. I suspect that if you could convince him/her that the company were in some way to blame foryour missed conection, they would tell you to get yourself a taxi and send them the bill

This is of course my take on the situation based on p-ast experience and not necessarily what would definitely happen on the day!  ;D

Hasn't happened to me ... solution for me would be to a call in a favour; a call to Lisa to ask "can you pick me up from Box, please" or if the bus was really late already at Chippenham to get a taxi from the station there.  I do know of people who have walked for hours through the night when they have (sober too!) missed the last bus.

That said, Faresaver these days are far more reliable than other operators around, and deserve our thanks / congratulations for how well they have been doing.