An early December Saturday - and crowds gathering at many places, including Melksham. So many people expected at the annual turning on of the lights and visit of Santa, with funfair rides, food vendors and a music stage outside and our Assembly Hall full of stalls promoting groups and selling Christmas goods. An excellent afternoon and early evening.
So big was the crowd and widespread the activity that the Town Centre was closed to all vehicle traffic, and that was applied for three months ago.
So - how did people get to the event?
* Within the town, and indeed many people from the encircling "Melksham Without" parish which includes communities adjoining the town, walked in. And that's from a walking catchment of perhaps 20,000 to 25,000
* Even though roads and Central Car Park were inaccessible, undoubtedly many people drove - more efficient that the typical 1.25 person per car of a normal day but still clogging up roads that allow parking in a ring around, and at least one person who spoke with me was concerned at getting clamped.
* People could get
to the event by bus - from Chippenham, Trowbridge and Frome on the x34, from Corsham and Bradford-on-Avon on the 68 and 69, and from Bath and Devizes on the 271 and 272. However, if they stayed to see the lights turned on they could ONLY get back to Bath and Devizes.
* People could get
to the event by train from Chippenham and Swindon, and from Trowbridge and Westbury. However, if they stayed to see the lights turned on they could ONLY get back to Trowbridge and Westbury - well - that was the theory.
Trains timetabled at 20:00 and 21:32. And there were people hoping to catch the 20:00, but it was flagged up as cancelled. The 21:32 did call at Melksham at 21:54, so that's a couple of hours after ideal. There's an empty train scheduled to pass through toward Swindon at 20:20 and that would have been ideal (in summer it carries passengers - why not for the rest of the year?) but in any case that was 45 minutes late, I suppose that doesn't matter if it's not taking passengers anyway.
No public transport promotion that I saw about coming to the event by public transport, even though it would have been a blindingly obvious thing to promote. Large crowds, bus stops and station available, a headstart given to public transport by closing the town centre and main car park. An event planned well ahead. I would have expected
CRP▸ promotion, and perhaps
GWR▸ to arrange for the empty working to take passengers in association with the event. Stonking good publicity opportunity, but I'm sure there are reasons why not.
P.S. - Just noting two train cancellations this evening too. Perhaps someone took the wise decision that it would be risky to promote a service that they were not confident could actualy be delivered, even though it's in the timetable.
