Melksham station - facilities, services, improvements and incidents - merged posts

[whole diary]

[matth1j]

Going for scrap.

Soon, hopefully.

[Timmer]

Going for scrap.

Soon, hopefully.

Hope so for his sake or those fines from the parking company will be racking up unless he’s either paid for parking or come to some arrangement with them.

[Western Pathfinder]

Melksham Twined with The People's Republic of Pilning by the look of it..

[TaplowGreen]

Melksham Twined with The People's Republic of Pilning by the look of it..

Entwined?

[IndustryInsider]

Melksham Twined with The People's Republic of Pilning by the look of it..

Popular Front, surely?

[Chris from Nailsea]

That could prove to be expensive. From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page), yesterday, in Wiltshire:

Man fined £2.8k after abandoning car on busy road



A man has been fined £2,869 after abandoning his car on the side of a dual carriageway along with a note saying it had broken down.

Jeremy Lopes, of Park Avenue in Southall, London, left his untaxed Skoda Octavia parked on the edge of the A303 near Cholderton, Wiltshire, in July 2024.

Wiltshire Council posted a seven-day abandoned vehicle removal notice on the windscreen of the vehicle but the owner failed to comply.

Councillor Martin Smith said dumping a vehicle is taken very seriously as it risks attracting "vandalism and rubbish" and costs the local taxpayer money to have it removed.

Officers called the phone number left on the note and spoke to a man who identified himself as the owner. He stated he would be moving the vehicle within 24 hours. When officers returned two days later the vehicle was still abandoned, untaxed, covered in debris and showed evidence of rusty brake discs. He was also contacted by Environmental Enforcement Officers and notified of the charges involved in reclaiming the vehicle, and the disposal costs if not reclaimed.

Mr Smith, cabinet member for highways, street scene and flooding, said the council's enforcement officers investigate every report of abandoned vehicles. "Most are removed by the owners when we contact them," he said. "We want to take responsibility for the environment and protect Wiltshire's beautiful countryside and scenic views. Abandoning a vehicle is not only a criminal offence, but it can also attract vandalism and rubbish, potentially having a negative effect on our visitors and residents. I hope this case shows that we take the abandoning of vehicles seriously and will act to deter people from considering doing this in the future."

Not an exactly similar situation, I agree, but it does show that councils can be quite determined (perhaps when it suits them). 

CfN.

[chuffed]

At first I thought we were heading for a severe taste of thread drift. Then I realised it wasn't all that far from what I saw on the eastern side of Gorlitz/Zgorzelec on the Polish side !

[matth1j]

Apologies - I did 'report to moderator' Graham's reply to my picture post in an attempt to get my post removed (you can't report your own posts ), as I realised it was spoiling what started off as a nice thread. Perhaps someone can split these off into a separate thread?

[grahame]

Apologies - I did 'report to moderator' Graham's reply to my picture post in an attempt to get my post removed (you can't report your own posts ), as I realised it was spoiling what started off as a nice thread. Perhaps someone can split these off into a separate thread?

I've got a very on/off connection here at the moment ... will take a look when at my next hotel later today unless it's sorted by someone else by then.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Now done. 

See https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=30382.msg362518#msg362518

CfN.

[grahame]

I've got a very on/off connection here at the moment ... will take a look when at my next hotel later today unless it's sorted by someone else by then.

Now there ...

Now done. 

Thanks, Chris - much more your expertise that mine anyway.

[ChrisB]

No equivalence as the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter, or Off Peak, depending on context) car is not on the highway, but private railway property

[grahame]

No equivalence as the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter, or Off Peak, depending on context) car is not on the highway, but private railway property

Eh?

The front of the car in the OP is on land owned by Wiltshire Council as part of Station Approach.  The rear of the car (you can see the demarcation line in a change of tarmac surface) is indeed on land owned by Network Rail which is also a public entity, and managed by Great Western which is a private company, with signage to suggest that management of vehicles left there has been subcontracted to APCOA^▸ (Airport Parking Corporation Of America - an organization founded in Ohio in 1947. Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) controlled stations in the area). Roughly where the photographer is stood there's a stud in the roadway and the Melksham Tyre folks own the quadrant of land on which their building sits and you can get past the car blocking the entrance by walking across their land. All a bit complicated.

[Phil]

Caught the train from Melksham to Bath and back today (left just after 9, home by 2). Sadly, it's noteworthy that I successfully achieved the trip without any significant delays or cancellations - though I see it's a good job I didn't want to return any later this afternoon. Just wanted to say though that the car abandoned across the entrance to Mkm station has gone.

[grahame]

Caught the train from Melksham to Bath and back today (left just after 9, home by 2). Sadly, it's noteworthy that I successfully achieved the trip without any significant delays or cancellations - though I see it's a good job I didn't want to return any later this afternoon. Just wanted to say though that the car abandoned across the entrance to Mkm station has gone.

The majority do work.  Eight out of ten trains in the December 2024 to May 2025 timetable ran (at Melksham) and it's a better number - nine out of ten - if you're looking at the services that were planned to run 48 hours ahead.  Problem is that even 9 out of 10 means a broken journey once a week for a 5 day commuter with outward or back.