Rail replacement advise - Melksham - until 23rd January 2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

My advice for today and indeed ongoing into early next year to Melksham passenger who want to use the train is ..

1. If you are working in Swindon or Chippenham during the week, there's a train at 08:02, and a return service at 17:35 17:50.

2. For anything else, catch the bus.
* For Bath, Bristol and the west, services 271/272/273 which stop in Manvers Street opposite the station for onward trains to Bristol and South Wales, and connection.
* For Trowbridge and Chippenham, use service x34 which serves Trinity Church in Trowbridge (except of Sundays when it terminates in the town) and the BUS station in Chippenham (early inbound and mid / late afternoon outbound journeys serve the railway station too)

Rail replacement buses - Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge STATIONS are also running, including on New Year's Day when the regular x34 / 271/2/3 are not running.   They also provide an evening service which the x34 does not.

Headed via Frome?  Catch the x34 which runs direct from Trowbridge to Frome and is much quicker that the rail replacement which take you via Westbury.

Headed for Westbury? Catch the rail replacement, but remember that if you are going beyond Westbury it will be buses beyond there too.

Train and bus departures vary on a few days - but for the most, take a look at https://www.mtug.org.uk/winterttm.pdf which lists the train and rail replacement services on typical days

[matth1j]

I flashed my train ticket at the 271 driver this morning, and he let me on, albeit with a resigned shrug of his shoulders. I got the strong impression he wasn't aware of the current scheme. I've emailed Faresaver

[matth1j]

I've emailed Faresaver

Prompt response:

Apologies our message out to drivers hadn’t sent regarding this.

We will ensure drivers are updated today

[ChrisB]

Matt -
If you can forward that message to me, I can forward to my contact at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) that is managing the RRS for Westbury to make GWR aware. Their social media ought to know that Faresaver drivers are only just now being informed.

[ChrisB]

When I clicked on the 'Post' button on the post above, it threw me an error message

Warning: rename(./loggy2.txt,./loggy.txt): No such file or directory in /home/firstgreatwestern/httpdocs/coffeeshop/index.php on line 67

I'll leave Graham to work that one out!

[matth1j]

Matt -
If you can forward that message to me...

Done.

[ChrisB]

Thanks - I've passed that on.

[matth1j]

BTW^▸ ('by the way') I also asked Faresaver about the possibility of using one of their double deckers for the first 271 Melksham-Bath which I've been catching intermittently in my commute to Bristol, instead of the 100% train (or replacement bus) option. The single decker 271 is full before it reaches Bath which puts me off using it, and they do use a double for at least one service (1715 Bath-Melksham).

Just got a response from 'a director':

It is the case that the number of passengers travelling on this route has increased significantly as a result of the £2 fare cap, which has been running throughout 2024. It is difficult to make enhancements to services based on schemes which are of a short-term nature, such as the £2 fare scheme. This has now increased to £3 for 2025 and we will monitor usage levels over the coming weeks to ascertain if there is scope to increase the frequency of buses between Bath and Devizes.

We use double decks vehicles on certain days, such as when there are events in Bath which lead to increased usage, but again it is difficult to justify expenditure on new double deck vehicles costing £300,000 each, where schemes designed to encourage usage are only short-term schemes. We are encouraging local and central government to provide more concrete long-term funding plans to give operators the confidence to invest in larger vehicles and enhance the frequencies of services.

[grahame]

Looking forward to Friday



All trains to or via Westbury also call at Trowbridge
All trains to or via Swindon also call at Chippenham

Return trains from Westbury run 17 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Swindon
Return trains from Trowbridge run 10 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Swindon
Return trains from Swindon run 27 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Westbury
Return trains from Chippenham run 10 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Westbury
(Yes - those are much quicker than the buses!)

[froome]

Looking forward to Friday



All trains to or via Westbury also call at Trowbridge
All trains to or via Swindon also call at Chippenham

Return trains from Westbury run 17 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Swindon
Return trains from Trowbridge run 10 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Swindon
Return trains from Swindon run 27 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Westbury
Return trains from Chippenham run 10 minutes BEFORE trains leave Melksham for Westbury
(Yes - those are much quicker than the buses!)

Just in time for Storm Eowyn to leave a few trees down on lines and others flooded.

[Timmer]

I suspect people who either travel from or through Westbury are looking forward to Friday as well. This closure has been far too long.

[matth1j]

BTW^▸ ('by the way') I also asked Faresaver about the possibility of using one of their double deckers for the first 271 Melksham-Bath which I've been catching intermittently in my commute to Bristol, instead of the 100% train (or replacement bus) option. The single decker 271 is full before it reaches Bath which puts me off using it, and they do use a double for at least one service (1715 Bath-Melksham).

Just got a response from 'a director':

It is the case that the number of passengers travelling on this route has increased significantly as a result of the £2 fare cap, which has been running throughout 2024. It is difficult to make enhancements to services based on schemes which are of a short-term nature, such as the £2 fare scheme. This has now increased to £3 for 2025 and we will monitor usage levels over the coming weeks to ascertain if there is scope to increase the frequency of buses between Bath and Devizes.

We use double decks vehicles on certain days, such as when there are events in Bath which lead to increased usage, but again it is difficult to justify expenditure on new double deck vehicles costing £300,000 each, where schemes designed to encourage usage are only short-term schemes. We are encouraging local and central government to provide more concrete long-term funding plans to give operators the confidence to invest in larger vehicles and enhance the frequencies of services.

Got quite excited this morning walking to Melksham train station at about 7am when a double decker 271 passed me on its way to Bath. I contacted Faresaver to ask if this was a permanent change, but it was just a one-off apparently, something to do with weekend rugby