Isn't yellow + green valid for home signal cleared and distant signal not cleared 

We have a new member looking to post images within his content ... using [ img ] to [ /img ] tags.   I use my own hosting for this so not best placed to recommend current best places for such hosting.   Member's recommendations welcome please!

Prepared for possible presentation over the next weeks; comments welcome.

Four buses an hour from Melksham into Bath is a golden opportunity to nurture modal change - to have people willingly shift from car to public transport, with its environmental gains (congestion,  air pollution, resource conservation) by offering them a carrot (cheap fares, no problem finding parking, bus lane journeys) rather than by waving a stick.  And with two buses an hour (D3 from First) going via Melksham Forest, Atworth and Box, and the other one or two (x72 from Faresaver) from Devizes and via Shaw and Bathford, the service is "feathered out" to pick up and drop off very close to many people's homes.  "Park and Ride"?  Sort of - park at home and ride all the way in.  There's a commonality of routes though - from Bowerhill, Melksham Town Centre, and Atworth and we really hope that the new service does not get turned into a bus war between the services.   

The regulatory frameworks currently used on commercial routes place operators in competition with each other, to the extent that they haven't even been allowed to co-operate in many ways as that could be regarded as a cartel by the Competition and Mergers Authority. This may be in the interest of any potential further operators wishing to enter this market, but results in such outcomes as return tickets that are not interchangeable between operators, buses running close together and then with a longish gap, and separate timetables ... when what the customer wants is a bus going where he wants to go, when he wants to go, safely and comfortably, with welcome staff.  Which uniform (if any) the staff wear is of little consequence, though facilities such as WiFi and the particular routes taken in town might be.

Enhanced and Advanced Partnership schemes (2017 Bus Services Act) allow local transport authorities - that's BaNES and Wiltshire Councils in the case of the D1 and D3 - to help broker and maintain co-operation between operators within their area or part of it.  And doing this makes huge sense in areas where the true competition and future market is the private car traveller.  True, there can be easy short term business gains for one or other operator on a flow doing so well that they gain a dominant position or monopoly, but in the long term the loss is that of the community of one of the services.

On the Bath to Melksham and Devizes route, First and Faresaver overlap during the day on Monday to Saturday for passengers from Melksham Town and a couple of other places mentioned above.  Faresaver serve extra locations during these times - the key one being Devizes.  First serve other additional locations - notably the residential areas of Melksham - and also cover most of the extra Faresaver destinations in the evenings and on Sundays.  Neither is a complete service for all locations, and it's in the intreest of the communities, public transport, and indeed both companies for both to survive - and indeed both to thrive.

Faresaver and First are very different organisations - a family run business, concentrating on daytime and specific passenger flows such as seniors and some commuter flows, and the subsidiary of a large company that operates across wide parts of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) and beyond, and in our area provides not only the high peak, specific flow journeys but also journeys which cover the far more general need.  Personally, when travelling between Melksham and Bath I find myself almost inevitably using the First Bus; I a not yet old enough to use a senior card so need to use the same company both ways, and the longer day (and Sunday) service from First means my choice is clear most times.

I would strongly support the co-operative implementation of a bus partnership for our area.  And indeed I could offer very limited assistance via TransWilts - a Community Interest Company - to the bus operators and local authoritys.  With modest funding sponsorship, TransWilts could take a far more active role in setting up and maintaining such a scheme, including partnership synchronisation and marketing.   Single timetable, regular services combed together, interchangeable tickets, joint marketing promotion for the benefit of both.  Very happy to talk in more detail at a later date; we do have the background, team, connections,  and a track record.

It is possible to travel by train from Melksham to Bath too, but this involves a change and the service is much less frequent.  We would not anticipate through services, nor a frequency increase to rival the current bus frequency, in the foreseeable future, and for this journey the train is not a competitor nor will it become one any time soon.

About Faresaver - text from Faresaver

Faresaver – All about us –in case you ever wondered?

Faresaver can trace its origins back to a day in the late 1970’s when village shopkeeper John Pickford bought a school minibus.

Over time, Mr Pickford’s fleet of school buses grew and he started operating local rural bus services.

In the late 1980’s the village shop closed and Mr Pickford concentrated on his bus business.

He was joined in the 1990’s by his two sons Justin and Daniel.

To this day Faresaver is still very much a family business.

Mr Pickford (senior) still goes out driving the buses and if you are a regular passenger you have probably been driven by the man himself!

Justin and Daniel oversee the day to day operation ably assisted by a team of experts.

The current Pickford family have approx 80 years of bus experience between them!

We are now based in Chippenham in a purpose built bus depot.

We operate 40 buses in North Wiltshire, Somerset and surrounding area.

Many of our staff have years of experience in the industry and there are a few who have been loyal for years.

Faresaver has become the largest independent bus operator in the area.

However, we have not forgotten our roots. The family members are very much hands on and whilst dealing with a multi-million pound turnover, will also get their ‘hands dirty’ when the need arises.

We make every effort to run the best buses with the best drivers that our finances will allow.

We strive to run to time. Often an impossible task. However, we do use the latest technology to assist us, with real time data on vehicle positioning and revenue fed back to the office in Chippenham.

For the safety of our passengers and drivers, we have installed CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) on most of our buses in the recent past.

We are about to install wi-fi on most of our fleet.

We are passionate about what we do.

We are not a multinational only looking to satisfy the shareholders. We are a small, independent trying to make a living for us and our staff.

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, but we always endeavour to answer the phone, respond to social media comments and give as much honest useful feedback as we can at any time of day and night.

When you phone the office, you may well speak to one of the owners and when you message us over social media it is nearly always one of the owners who responds.

If you have got this far - Well Done !

In summary, we are here for you, our passengers. We will always give you the best we can and all we ask in return is that you support us, your friendly local family bus company.

About First West of England - abstracted from WikiPedia

First West of England is a bus operator providing services in Bristol, Bath, Somerset, South Gloucestershire and West Wiltshire. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.

As at March 2016, the fleet consisted of 649 buses and coaches.

First West of England operate six depots: Bristol bus station, Lawrence Hill, Hengrove, Bath, Weston-super-Mare and Wells.  They also operate outstations at Chepstow and Westbury.

FirstGroup plc is a British transport group, registered and operating in the United Kingdom. The company also operates transport services in Ireland, Canada and the United States. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

I can recall a timetable from the latter years of the line showing around 4 services each way per day going through; doesn't sound like many at all, until you look at other service frequencies at around that time - I was looking at Pewsey the other day and that had just two trains each way per day, Barnstaple (and Ilfracombe) were two and three hour gaps, etc.   I do not have a date / reference to hand though (Physical separation from the paperwork this week!) ... will have a look next week / scan and upload if I remember or am reminded!

"Meltdown Monday"

The day the rail industry belatedly planned engineering works and scheduled trains ... then within hours of them being due to run changed them again because they find (taken by surprise?) that they don't have the crew available.

Is this a lack of joined up thinking, a false dream of a a great crew room full of staff, incompetence, or planned to let people down in two more gentle steps rather than one big step?



and customer advise

Meltdown Monday ... the services that were added to the timetable from South Wales to London have all (?) been taken away again

Totally agree.

Let's hope their earlier cancellation notice hasn't put too many people off.

Although I'm not around and travelling today, I do have incoming messages about trips people are taking - not only regulars but "my first time on a senior card" and "can you help me / tell me which platform"

Oops ... although the latter isn't on Swindon to Westbury, it's the granting on a TransWilts request for an earlier train from Warminster on a Sunday - and these early Bank Holiday Sunday runs are important marketing for a service that's looking at a new market ...

Pretty unhappy regular commuters at Trowbridge for Swindon ... and they will be double happy when they find their return train cancelled though lack of crew.  Although it's a Sunday morning, there are people who live in West Wilts and live in Swindon, and rely on public transport to reach their jobs.   Modal change of the sort we (CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership)) have set out to foster but which seems at times to be a battle.   Talk of overcrowded buses this weekend (and not rail replacement ones!) too.

08:28 Westbury to Swindon reported 45 minutes late - "train late from depot".   Hope the return trip makes a Weymouth connection at Westbury as Sunday is the only day of the week that there are (in theory) connections both ways.

Edit to correct text

Maidenhead to High Wycombe is another of those broken rail links that should never have been broken ... along with Bere Alston to Crediton (gone 50 years and a day) and Oxford to Cambridge.

on last Friday, I watched as the 08:59 from Brighton called at Westbury (11:40 due, 11:45 actual) and half a dozen passengers transferred onto the 11:47 (actual leave tme 11:49) headed for Chippenham. A handful of others joined the train, and I suspect it picked up some more at Trowbridge.

on Tuesday of the previous week, I had caught the 11:40 bus (left ar 11:45) from Trowbridge to Chippenhma with just two fellow passengers. The connecting train from Brighton was due in at 11:48 ... next Rail Replacement bus at 14:10.

For passengers and for the areas served, providing the total journey including connections is key.  For a Community Rail Partneship, charged with encouraging passengers on local services, broken connections from "the main line" are heartbreaking; for the occasional day or even week, we can live with it ... for as many days as it's happening this year, it's going to set us back an age, an dit's worthwhile continuing to press for some small tunings that can make a big difference.

Passengers and the area served are not the only ones effected by engineering rescheudes.  They are very expensive for the trai operator to provide, advertise and staff - and for that reason it's cost effective to try to provide a service that meets the franchise committment, rather that replicates the journey needs.  And I wonder too if part of the reason for the lack of timetables and an encourgament to people to check on line is to avoid marketing services and getting too many new passengers - just provide for the regulars and those who have to travel, and supress leisure demand.

It's a serious allegation that the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) does not want encourage use of its services.  Not TransWilts specific, but

From https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/slough2018


After considerable negotiation and pushing, "via Melksham" tickets are now accepted on the longer routing via Bath that takes longer during engineering works.  Thank you GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway); a welcome concession.  Having the buses connect, and the same level of service and connections from a passenger viewpoint that you usually do would be welcome, as would timetables online and at stations so that people can travel without have to research online or by phone ahead!

Advertising is, however, changing ... I appreciate this is just 4 out of 45 cancellations, with 17 other services cut short.   Not been through them all, but mostly are "shortage of train crew".    Most losses are Bristol based / scheduled to go no nearer to London that Swindon or Salisbury, so for people in the Thames Valley it may be "as advertised" ... whichever advert that is.