2. Melksham

The whole thing begs the question as to why why GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) feel they need an "online research community to help shape the future" when they already have a perfectly good one right here.

Sadly I already have, & will be watching this saga unfold with interest. Our daughter's getting married in Scotland on 11th June and  the advance rail tickets (first class no less!) have been bought and paid for already. I've seen strike action is threatened for "mid June" so I'm keeping everything I have two of crossed that we can still get there, even if getting back will be a problem...

Looks like they've finally admitted defeat on the TransWilts - I just tried to buy a ticket from MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) to WSB^» (Westbury - next trains) tomorrow and there's apparently none available, presumably because no trains are expected to run....

Noooooo! There goes my train home again.

Not exactly easy to get a bus from Westbury to Melksham of an evening either...

Oh, bless her. Jo was so lovely, and so funny, and so clever too. We only met a couple of times but she had that knack of making you feel like you'd made a friend for life. And life for the rest of us will be the poorer without her. Rest in Peace, Jo. x

There seems to be an assumption here that it was members of the hunt who allowed the dogs to stray on the line. That may well be the case. I don't know. However I am personally aware of an incident near Erlestoke in Wiltshire some five or six years ago when hunt saboteurs deliberately redirected a pack of hunt dogs onto the main Westbury-Pewsey line.

I don't have a great deal of sympathy with those who hunt living creatures for recreational purposes; but ever after that I have nothing but revulsion for the sick individuals who feel it to be necessary to intentionally put the lives of both animals and the travelling public at risk.

I consider myself the most loyal and patient of customers but even I'm not using the TransWilts to commute to and from work (MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) - WSB^» (Westbury - next trains)) this week. I found during the past three weeks or so that I could usually get in OK, but either had to leave early to get the "last train" (a lunchtime service, with everything after that showing as cancelled) or rely on the invariably helpful station staff at WSB to find me a taxi to MKM - which I twice abandoned on the outskirts of Melksham and walked home in the dark, rather than sit in ring-road traffic for an additional 20 minutes just to get to the station and join up the dots. I'm lucky: I have the option of using the car if I want to. For most of the year round I choose to use the train as I consider myself very fortunate to have the service available and played a very small part in fighting to save it once long ago; but quite frankly it's too unreliable to be any use to man nor beast right now. Whether or not I'll return to the train in the spring remains to be seen.

What's going on at Westbury? Not only the Transwilts services cancelled but loads of others too. And yet according to the website there's a good service across the network....

I haven't used Trainline for several years, but just out of interest I logged into my old account a few minutes ago, typed in a journey and it generated exactly the results I expected. Have you tried using a different web browser?

It's probably referring to 8.34pm departure and an 8.14am arrival...

I had an apologetic person from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on the phone to me yesterday regarding a customer complaint I put in last June (!) about cancellations on the route; firstly to apologise for the delay, and secondly seeking my assurance that I thought things had improved since then. And I admitted they have - the last two weeks have been trouble free.

Although I did notice the service that gets into Swindon just before 8 is running ten or more minutes late this morning, so I may well have spoken too soon....

If this is an attempt to get me to part with personal data in order to hack my passwords, it's a particularly clever one. I can see bits of my most commonly used password phrases in at least five of the entries!

Can't believe nobody's yet mentioned Elton John's platforms.

My question to you would be, why is it even a problem?

Tap in and tap out with a smart card on entering and on leaving the train. Tap in and tap out with a smart card or phone when entering and on leaving the bus. It's hardly innovation.