See here for a timetable I put together for this summer's services - it's Melksham based - public transport to Bath, Devizes, Chippenham, Trowbridge and FROME.

This new timetable (from the start of last week) remains truely dreadful - "NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE"?

Features:

Monday to Friday trains in marginal time - a predawn round trip before anyone wants to travel, and an evening train which is too late for getting home from work, and too early to go home after a night out even assuming you could get out in the first place.

Saturday:  A train to get you to Swindon too late for work, a round trip while the soccer's on (and much of the saturday traffic is soccer fans)  and a mid evening return to Westbury

Sunday: Nothing during the day and two evening trains in one direction only.

I put a "?" against my "Not fit for purpose" suggestion.   It's not fit for the purpose of transporting passengers when they need to travel, but it DOES (nealry) meet the government's specification as to what should be provided (I question that the last train on Sunday may bee too slow technically).   You would think, wouldn't you, that some bright spark could come up with a solution to meet BOTH purposes?

Last year, 40% of our customers used the train. This year, only one group of 3 customers has doen so from Melksham, waiting around for the 19:50 on a Friday evening (would have left on the busy 17:02 last year).

I've drawn up a "train v bus" schedule for the main cross of routes (Bath to Devizes and Chippenham to Frome) that intersects in Melksham - added the trains in too. It makes interesting reading:

http://www.wellho.net/demo/bustimes.php

The Sunday morning trains to Weymouth were indeed a last minute addition according to confirmations now to hand.   Mark Annand's letter was 100% when it was written and it's naughty (to put it mildly) for anyone to suggest that he was wrong, or to claim loads of credit for offering a better service than he suggested would be available while "rubbishing" him.

Remember this tactic.    If you are running 12 trains but you really only want to run 10, announce you're going to cut  back to 8 services.   Then you'll be seen as the white knight when you - at the last minute - run 10.  Of course, you've managed to sneak in the cuts you wanted to make in the first place ....

I note all this on cycles.  I undertand that 158 are being scheduled for the Sunday Weymouth services as they have more seats on them ... and the crews are expecting / having (not sure which) problems with the number of pushchairs and amount of luggage that daytrippers want to take.

Thank goodness it's a REALLY wet Bank Holiday Sunday today??

I would be very intesested to see those figures converted to pence per mile.  Do the enormous changes even out some past idicyncracies, and/or create new ones?   Having said that, a fare change scheme which doubles some fares overnight seems - at best - to be too much of a change to make in one step.

Ironically (and I know I may get flack for this) I am not always against fare rises even in real terms - a higher but still-good-value fare may increase the income of a service and tip the balance to make it viable.  I'm not being a "Nimby" here, either ... I have actually suggested that West Wilts to Swindon fares could rise in real terms 20% with an appropriate service being offered. Amazingly, First have just CUT those fares though "in an attempt to stimulae business".  Hang on - if you want to stimulate TransWilts business you need a more appropriate timetabkle than services at 06:19 and 18:42 (only) Monday to Friday, and provide trains BOTH ways (not just Northbound) on Sundays!

Here's a story you don't often hear!    First Great Western are reducting a number of off peak fares (Swindon/ Gloucester/ Worcester area) as from this weekend - I understand they're doing it to help encourage traffic off peak. The news is provided on their web site http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=491.

The standard day return from Melksham to Swindon is also being reduced - from 7.90 to 6.80; I understand that this reduction is to encourage additional traffic.  There may be other changes too that I'm not aware of ...

 I understand that the ordinary return fare from Melksham to Swindon will be reduced from 7.90 to 6.80 as from this Sunday. The Cheap day return goes down to 5.40.

My information is that this fare reduction is intended to encourage the growth of traffic.

Oh come on - operational convenience - providing a timetable that uses as few trains as possible and doesn't cause to many delays and side effects is very important these days.  Much more so that providing a service that's what the customers want, it often seems. 

Standard tactic Number 1 - Say something that sounds positive without actually answering the question.

Standard tactic Number 2 - Send out a timetable in the post and invite the correspondent to read it (even though it says nothing we didn't know already

Standard tactic Number 3 - state the obvious and not the real answer.

Standard tactic Number 4 - Answer a different question.

Lee - I think you have a number 3 - they are being withdrawn because that's what the new timetable says ... obvious when you think about it 

Oh - magic.   Table 142 doesn't include trains that don't stop at Par 

Thanks Jim!

According to table 142 of the new National Rail Timetable, there are only TWO trains to Newquay on summer saturdays, arriving there at 11:08 and 13:07. That's as opposed to 6 trains on summer Sundays and 6 on Summer Monday-to Friday.   Have I missed something?

Four questions which have arisen from some work I've been doing over the last couple of days

a) Which Wiltshire station has the largest popution living within 10km of the station?

b) Which Wiltshire station is the only one with close access off the A350, making it suitable for upgrading to a park and ride?

c) Which Wiltshire station showed the highest growth in percentage terms from 1996 to 2006, based on the county's passenger counts? 

d) And which of these stations have the lowest number of passengers leaving / joining the trains each day in proportion to the number of people living within 2 km? 

Stations in the area of direct influence / control of Wiltshire County Council (so include in the statistics I have): Avoncliff, Bedwyn, Bradford-on-Avon, Chippenham, Dean, Dilton Marsh, Melksham, Pewsey, Salisbury, Tisbury, Trowbridge, Warminster and Westbury [N.B. Swindon is a Unitary authority so not included in County Council figures]

(Here is a clue on (c) - the growth rate figures quoted for the stations are as follows: 1.70 1.70 1.57 1.40 1.68 2.92 6.58 2.06 1.61 1.73 2.10 1.51 and 1.42 so that the lowest growths in the 10 years are 40% and 42%, and the highest is 558%. Can you match the station with the growth?)

(And a clue / comment on (d) - a figure of one passenger journey per 30 residents is typical - 10 of the 13 stations are close to this line on a graph. None is far above the line, but one station is especially a long way below!)

So that's a very long way of saying "yes" is it Jim 

An hourly service will be operated from Oxford to Bicester and back this Saturday and Sunday, to celebrate 20 years of service on the line (since re-opening).

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=1196

Excellent to see that First are running extra trains for special events. I hope they'll be well supported.