Thanks again for the responses on this.

It does seem to me that issues 1, 3, 4 & 7 relate to the commercial construct under which we choose to run buses - not some law of physics issue.  I re-itterate that this is a choice that we are makin

In the age if the mobile phone and infomation technology issues 2, 5 & 6 are ones that we really could do something about.

I am forced to agree that there is an image problem with bus travel. But surely snobbishness shouldnt be a key decider in how we spend large sums of money?  At least on the bus I can invariably get a seat (unlike the train when I go to bristol) and being fairly tall (6'3'') I actually find having the space on a bus more comfortable than being cooped up in a car.

For journey time again train v bus is a hard one for the bus to win (but for chippenham to swindon it doesnt need to of course). But given a sufficient frequency of service its should have a chance against the car.  It does feel to me that the bus lanes in Bath do give the bus a bit of an edge time wise over the car.

As for cost - well it annoys me that often I seem to be the only one paying when I get on the bus (and through my council tax probably for everyone else on board to).

Thanks for the welcome Grayhame,

now I was probably being a bit loose when I spoke about the 232 service - what I meant was the 231 I guess really.

I think its a bit of a red herring to say that there a 4 buses an hour at present when infact there are 2 different services running on the same/similar route one slightly before the other.

If there are good reasons why opening Corsham train station would be a better option than an improved bus service I would love to understand them?

But it still seems to me that an improved bus service would be a more acheivable option.

What I don't understand about these various forums is why the focus on getting Corsham Rail Station re-opened and not on improving the bus service.

Now there are local buses running around Corsham and Chippenham why does the 232 need to go round the houses?

Why can't it just run along the A4 between Chippenham Railway station and Bath Railway station.

Why couldn't the vast cost of station in Corsham be used to improve the service to 4ish times and hour rather than 2ish?