I'm surprised they haven't looked at developing bus services to cirencester.
... or even reopening the branch line.
John Prescott tried increasing the bus services in the late 1990's, but nobody used them - the number arriving or leaving the station without a single passenger was incredibly high, ridiculed locally and a total waste of money. Today, there is a reasonable bus service that does have a patronage, but you need to consider where most passengers travel to or from.
If you want to travel to Swindon or Cheltenham from Cirencester then it is quicker to take the bus direct from Cirencester rather than via Kemble and changing. And where would the buses come from, route wise? If they come from Cirencester then you have to get into the middle of Cirencester to catch the bus. It is quicker to go directly to Kemble. To have the buses go round the various estates in Cirencester to pick up the odd passenger would be plainly uneconomic - even the local town services require subsidy - and it would take even more time.
Yes, there are folk who have to catch the bus and there is a half reasonable service, which could be improved, but no one seems to think there is the demand to warrant much of an increase.
To be perfectly honest, those using Kemble are quite affluent and the catchment area is quite interesting. A lot depends on travel time to and from the Station. There are users from afar as Wotton under Edge - a good 20 miles as it takes only a little over half an hour on a good day. Also from Leckhampton and Charlton Kings on the outskirts of Cheltenham as it can be quicker than Cheltenham rush hour traffic, plus it is quicker and cheaper than using the train from Cheltenham station itself.
Until the 1980's if a passenger missed a Swindon or London train at Cheltenham by just a few minutes, then Cheltenham would telephone Kemble to say that that a passenger was driving to Kemble and would or wouldn't need a ticket and would they look out for them. Usually they would arrive with about 3 or 4 minutes to spare and sometimes the train would be held.
The catchment area also goes quite close to Swindon to avoid the Swindon traffic and parking issues at Swindon Station, with some passengers happy to pay more for a less attractive journey time and frequency than from Swindon.
Re-opening the Cirencester Branch is talked about from time to time including on the Coffee Shop:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=14439.0I really don't think they will get far as the route has been built over in Cirencester and that means that you would have to travel to a station on the outskirts for a 3 mile ride to Kemble.
Nice but hopeless.
Sapperton Tunnel