Fastest journey not offered by GWR journey planner?

[whole diary]

[John R]

Having said which, it was kinda difficult to get through and check tickets tonight - at least 110 on from Chippenham, 35 off and 6 on at Melksham - 116/41[/

I sense that numbers are levelling off on the 1736 as the overcrowding gets close to crush capacity? (35 standees would be at least 1 per metre down the aisle and 10 in each vestibule, which feels pretty close to the limit.)

[grahame]

Having said which, it was kinda difficult to get through and check tickets tonight - at least 110 on from Chippenham, 35 off and 6 on at Melksham - 116/41[/

I sense that numbers are levelling off on the 1736 as the overcrowding gets close to crush capacity? (35 standees would be at least 1 per metre down the aisle and 10 in each vestibule, which feels pretty close to the limit.)

Yes - fair comment. No room to grow.   Station duties taking far longer than they should ... at Chippenham while the train was re-arranged to get the prams and all the people on, and at Melksham as people had to get back past all the luggage and stuff. 

Growth continues on the 15:12 off Swindon ... but that's getting to be standing now too.  For the growth to continue, we really need an extra carriage; to some extent we can press upwards off peak but some of those extra passengers will want to come back peak.  As an alternative, running a 16:27 from Swindon - extension of the 16:24 arrival from Cheltenham Spa, and have it continue into the 17:11 Westbury to Warminster would relieve the pressure (also create a problem because the 15:30 from Paddington would catch it up before Chippenham though).