Don't think I'd seen that before - looks good.

Fascinating old pictures of Melksham station - proper station building(s), 2 tracks with platforms on both sides, and a footbridge. How many of those are in the current Melksham expansion plans?

Seriously I'm glad Melksham has been restored back to where it is now, and very much appreciate the work Graham and others have done, and are doing, to keep moving forwards. The improvements are obvious in the <3 years I've been in the area.

The 2 trains that pass through Melksham at 12-something on the way to Swindon (my commute) were also cancelled, as is the 14:40 (13:10 from Frome).

I'd already decided to work from home after the 07:49 Melksham train was cancelled, and at least this time they announced it was cancelled before I'd run to the station, so it could have been worse. Just saved £9.90 £10.20.

Yes, thanks to grahame

Unfortunately, after 10 years of commuting between Reading and Bath on the train at vast expense, then moving to be nearer the office, they go and move the flippin office 

Ok, so the move wasn't primarily to make my commute easier. Nevertheless, in the New Year I'm going to have to make my way from Whitley to Swindon. Fortunately it's far from an impossible journey by public transport - Melksham does have a train station. But it will require approx 3.5 additional miles between home/office and stations each way, of which only 2 of those miles have a public transport option. And it will be (at least) twice as expensive, with far fewer timetable options.

Shouldn't complain - at least I've still got a job; not everyone in the office was so lucky.

Well, we made it! Decided on Melksham in the end, or Whitley to be more accurate - been here nearly a month, and very happy. Saving loads of money on commute costs

Have used both the First 272 and Faresaver X72; First's mTicket phone app works better than the Faresaver web based system, the bus stop is closer, and their 10 journeys for £24 makes that the cheapest option for me. But the X72's timetable is preferable.

One problem with the X72 though, as I discovered this morning - Faresaver ought to let their drivers know about road closures. Our poor driver had to reverse about half a mile down the road this morning when we got to the road closure in Bathford (it's been closed since Monday)

Wow - thanks for all that grahame, much appreciated.

To be honest, it's early days yet - it's something we've talked about, and we've spent a couple of days driving around towns and villages between Swindon and Bath trying to get some idea of the lay of the land. But we're not planning on actually moving until next summer at the earliest, and somewhere else might take our fancy before then.

BTW^▸ (by the way) we did look at Melksham, and quite liked it - main issue was what seemed like its very busy (in terms of traffic) high street. Devizes seemed a bit more relaxed.

I haven't fully digested all of your posts yet, but it sounds like the Devizes-Bath bus(es) should be safe for a while, which is good; we won't cross it off the list yet

Cheers
John

I'm currently commuting between home in Reading and work in Bath by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) trains. But we're thinking of moving next year, and top of the list of locations at the moment is Devizes.

Devizes train station was a victim of the Beeching Axe in 1966, but it does have a direct bus service linking it with Bath, the Faresaver X72 service, which terminates at Easterton.

The fact the bus is timetabled to take 70-odd minutes for the 20 mile journey compared to the train's 60-odd minutes for the 70 mile journey isn't really an issue, and to be fair it is about a quarter of the cost. But I am interested in whether the service is likely to be around for the next few years.

Anyone like to make a prediction? Has it been going long? Is it a popular service?

Mmm... I do get emails from FGW, which was how I found out about the ^10 singles (on Wednesday). It's possible I got the earlier email, but didn't bother to read it.

Thanks - you've made me feel a lot better

Apologies in advance for waffling on...

I've been buying advance tickets for my 3 day a week commute between Earley (just outside Reading) and Bath for over 9 years. The cheapest way to do it is to split the journey, with walk-ons between Earley and Didcot, and advances between Didcot and Bath.

Initially I caught the 0726 from Reading. Then that (ie. the advance bit between Didcot-Bath) went up, so I caught the 0656 (very quiet!). That went up, and I switched to the 0742, having to change at Swindon.

Eventually the 0742 went up, and the only option was the 0858, getting into Bath at about 10am. Luckily work is pretty flexible so it wasn't a big problem. But it meant I went from low occupancy trains, getting into the office nice and early, to pretty full carriages and practically late for work.

Strangely, for September the best (and only) option was advance 1st class, with a change at Swindon. So at the moment I'm getting 2 cups of coffee and pieces of cake for breakfast, as well as posh seats! (Although I don't think they're actually any more comfortable, and it's a bit of a stretch to reach my laptop on the table.)

But for the last lot of tickets I bought, before the ^10 singles became available unfortunately, things took a big turn for the worse. There were no cheap advance tickets at all before 9am, and the best option became straight returns between Earley and Bath, again not getting into Bath until 10am. This meant my travel bill for October jumped by over 33%, from approx ^300 to over ^400.

It might be that the lack of the usual advances is due to the ^10 single promotion, and they might come back when that finishes. But based on the trend over the last 9 years, I suspect not

It's a very good deal. However...

I buy my Reading-Bath commute advance tickets at least a month in advance, usually when I get paid. So at the end of last month, my October tickets cost me just over ^400.

If I'd waited a few days until the ^10 ticket promotion started, they'd have cost ^240.

^160+ wasted 

I did email FGW^▸ (First Great Western) feedback to see if there was any chance of a refund, but they explained that advance tickets are offered at 'massively discounted rates', and have to be non-refundable. Of course I understand that, but still pretty irritating...

I wasn't sure whether you were talking about tickets for your journey(s), or my journey, or just in general.

However, today I get a response from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to a query I sent yesterday (the original automated reply warned it might take 7+ days!). They said the same thing, and suggested it was just down to increased demand.

Seems odd though - I've been buying the ^8.80 tickets 6 weeks in advance for over a year, yet now there are none available right up to the 3 month limit. So...


...I've asked whether the number of tickets available has changed.

Anyway, apologies to FGW for maligning them.

Well... yes and no. I get on at Reading (split ticket trick), where I would estimate 'my' coach C at less than 5% occupancy. A few people get on at Didcot, and a few more at Swindon, but I doubt it's more than 20% full.

A lot of people do get on at Chippenham, although like this morning the seat next to me isn't always taken. But they always have done, and I don't think the numbers have increased.


'Fraid not - just Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Tuesdays/Thursdays are holidays working-from-home days.

Regarding the value-for-money aspect - yes, I'm very grateful I head west rather than into London. But presumably the old price wasn't just plucked out of thin air; there must have been a reason for it. Anyway, I still don't think that gives them the (moral) right to almost double it overnight. Perhaps I'm biased

My standard class advance 0712 Didcot Parkway - Bath Spa appears to have jumped from ^8.80 to ^16.10, which I reckon is an 83% increase.

This is serious for me. When the 0742 jumped in price a year or 2 ago at least I had the option of the earlier service, although I have to get up at 5.30 to catch it. The only service before the 0712 is an hour earlier - a 4.30 start isn't practical!

Thanks for moving this to the correct location chris.

I've been doing the Reading-Bath commute for 6 or 7 years now (3 days a week) and it's the first time I've done this. Hopefully it's also the last

John

So I get to Bath this morning on my usual commute from Reading, and hand in my advance single tickets on exiting the station (manned gate, not barrier). I'm on way back to Reading this evening and the conductor comes down the carriage asking for tickets. I get them out of my wallet - ah, they're for Didcot to Bath, not Bath to Didcot. I'd handed in the wrong ones this morning

I show the conductor my incorrect tickets, and also the correct standard return for the Didcot to Reading bit of my journey (a lot cheaper that way as you probably know). I explain what I've done, and admit it doesn't sound particularly convincing.

However, either he's had a good day, or he's a very good judge of character . Either way, he stamps my tickets and moves on.

So heartfelt thanks to the conductor, and I hope he reads this so he doesn't have any doubt over whether he made the right decision.

John

As predicted, having paid the full ^12.10 for a new ticket like a good boy, no one came to check it. Pah!

But if it happened again I would probably do the same thing. That's despite having got away with it a year or 2 ago - I had bought an advance ticket for an earlier train than my usual (the usual was too expensive IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly)) but had forgotten by the time the day came. Decided to get on the wrong train without changing my ticket, conductor did come, looked at my ticket, and just moved on, much to my relief. Probably just didn't notice (the minutes past the hour figure was the same for both trains).