Great Western Coffee Shop

Aside

Arriving back from France and docking on time at 16:00 in Portsmouth ... foot passengers seemingly last amongst equals to be taken off the ferry, with all vehicle traffic gone by the time we were allowed to join a bus to drive us to the terminal, where we queued up to see one of the two border force officers on duty. And what a long process that was, when one of the two appeared to be "blocked" with an arrival who he wasn't happy with, and the other was doing a little interview with everyone!     Then the waymarking to the station is patchy - there's a pointer I noted outside the terminal, but it then disappears at the following road junctions with choices between things like "Town Centre" and "Town Centre (south)" offered. Anyway, having used the map app on my phone, I got to the station at 17:00

Main Topic

The cheapest single to Melksham is priced at £48.30 ... and (yes) I could get a senior railcard discount.  It's anytime via Salisbury.  But, hang on, I can get an evening single to Romsey and a Romsey to Chippenham off peak single via Melksham and end up with a total payment of £20.25

In a brief conversation, there was I felt an element of admiration from the booking clerk, "ah - I wondered why you were doing that combo" with a smile.  But shouldn't the system be able to offer the best value?  Yeah, I know we have been here before.

Aside

Anyway ... 17:04 Wateroo train, change at Eastleigh, Romsey and Westbury - couldn't have been easier - or could it  :D ... only just made the connection at Eastleigh, l-o-n-g wait as usual at Westbury.

Straight "into things" at Melksham - safeguarding concern at station, discussion with takeaway owner about local issues as I picked up some food on my way in.

Oh - I estimate there were around 30 passengers on the arrival at Melksham at 20:20.  12 got off, 4 got on - really not bad for the last train of the day - one of the two that ran even though the lean years of "just 2 a day" when you might find just 3 or 4 passengers on the train.

Edited just to correct CaPiTaLiSaTiOn.