Trip to Salisbury, yesterday, 2.3.2022 for a breakfast meeting near Salisbury Station. Plan was for 06:36 train Melksham to Salisbury direct at 07:23. 06:36 not running at present - first train not until 09:10 and then a long connection wait at Westbury - 10:33 into Salisbury. Far too late. Took the very first bus to Trowbridge and then the train - timetabled 07:56, Salisbury due 08:32, actually around 10 minutes from Trowbridge and further delayed on the approach to Salisbury letting the Basingstoke train go ahead and awaiting a platform. Bus fare £2.50 on top of the train ticket (I got an
MKM» -SAL at
TRO» ) - that's child fare because a child fare is allowed before 09:30 for senior card holders!
4 carriage train (2 x 158) however front carriage door(s) out of order and looked empty as it came into Trowbridge. Catering trolley (yes, really!) blocking corridor forward to front carriage at that point; other 3 carriages pleasantly busy (60% seats occupied?). Good off and on flows at Westbury and Warminster.
Return - back, arrived to travel from SAL at around 10:05. Next train was 10:42 (good chance to look around SAL station). 11:18 into Trowbridge - no Melksham train for over an hour (would have got there 12:33) so took to the bus again. Pretty sure it was the same 4 car train; say a third full, though I was in the front carriage and we pulled forward past crowd at
WMN» and
WSB» , so I suspect the others were busier.
From
https://www.facebook.com/groups/option247/posts/1661200207563872/ ...
A bus stop - what can possibly go wrong with public information?
I travelled from Salisbury to Melksham yesterday ... train to Trowbridge, from where I caught the bus to Melksham - a well placed stop at the top of the station approach. I knew I needed an x34 "Chippenham" and that at that time of day (late morning) they're around every 30 minutes. But what of newcomers to the area? I met a gentleman at the bus stop travelling to Lacock.
1. The Next Departures display is showing only service D1 and it is not clear that it only covers the one service. The next bus was OK, the second (D1) only partially and the time and date line incomplete
2. The Timetable display panel shows the D1 in the wrong direction - towards Bath, but this stop is for services the other way - towards Warminster. The times are different. The Bath stop is not even within sight of the stop I am reporting on - it's at the other side of the church on the far side of the square.
3. Timetables for routes x34, 65 and 65A look (to me) correct. Times of services on routes 69, 87, 94, 96, 98, x47 and x77 or the fact they call there are not listed. These are all infrequent services only into the town, so perhaps not a problem
4. I tried the
QR▸ code to get information to my phone on a browser but got "Safari could not open the page because the server has stopped responding"
5. Bus stop timetable panel filthy!
https://bustimes.org/stops/4600WIA10158wilagdgd
Bus turned up on time, double decker no less, and took around 25 minutes to Melksham - including a loop and a half of Trowbridge (wonderful one way system) and a tour of Hilperton. Into Melksham just before midday. My "Lacock" friend was on the same bus - concerned that he might miss his stop, but I assured him "another 10 minutes from here" and described the stop ... none of the modern next stop signs or announcements on this bus, though my friend did agree the benefit of a 30 minute service with a more basic bus over a 60 minute one with a posher bus. He was on a day trip, and I altered him to reduced afternoon frequency and no buses in the evening.
Public transport remains workable by those of us who can compromise and work things out, but neither trains nor buses really encourage people who have a choice. The posibility of wrong timetables at stations has been eliminated by not having any timetables at all - though there is a TransWilts timetable up at Trowbridge, hopefully offering that early train. There is a also an
SWR» poster encouraging you to travel with them as just about the only marketing poster, and an engineering works poster telling you where trains wer to be disrupted at the weekend during February!
It may save expenditure to not bother to keep things complete, clean and current, but I can't help feeling that it might well lose more in new passenger income / people put off ("it was filthy / couldn't find data - never again") than it saves in lack of update and maintenance.
