Agree mostly with all the timetable points here... But there are some considerations to be made in terms of the existing offering.
Coming the other way, extending the 17:36 from Swindon to give a Frome arrival at 18:31 would fill their 17:49 to 18:49 gap, giving an extra Bristol departure at 17:23 (by connection) between the 16:49 and 17:49.
I could see this causing problems for 2 reasons.
the 19:06 Frome - Bristol Temple Meads train is booked to arrive at 19:00 and sit in the station for 6 minutes. This allows an UP London Paddington train the chance to overtake
IIRC▸ .
The 18:49 Frome - Weymouth is a peak time train from Bath Spa & Bristol Temple Meads and is usually a few minutes late...
This leaves the risk possible for an 18:31 arrival being say 10 minutes late. You then have another 2 trains, 1 each in opposite directions all wanting a path in Frome in addition to anything InterCity grade on the avoiding lines. So what do you do to prevent that 19:06 from hogging the UP line thus meaning the InterCity service needs to slow down or stop completely around the Witham Friary area?
We know that what should happen is allow the 19:06 into the station and get the 18:31 and 18:49s to sit at the signals in the branch lines... The 18:49 also connects at Castle Cary for an Exeter St Davids / Plymouth* train so delay to this is bad news for anyone wanting to go anywhere near Penzance
I don't think it's a silly idea. But I could see
FGW▸ having some justified concerns to the punctuality of their Long Distance services. Perhaps for the more insidious reasons that trains through Frome aren't well known for their timekeeping except a small handful of trains which are either on time or cancelled in full