Listening to the customers and potential customers

The Melksham Public Transport Timetable from 14th December 2025 (put together by MTUG^» ) through the winter and into spring is back from the printers.

Over three days (Leekes the previous weekend, and at the Assembly Hall) we from Melksham Transport User Group have distributed somewhere between 400 and 425 bus and train timetables from our initial stock of 500, and all of those into the hand of people willingly and knowingly receiving them. I suggest that this was a very effective way of reaching people.

As well as getting information out there, this exercise has been useful in connecting with actual and potential used of Melksham’s buses and trains. In no particular order:

1. Multiple requests for the x34 to run in the evening from Trowbridge and Chippenham - last bus is presently far earlier than people like. People like the extra Saturday evening buses from Bath and would love them during the week too, where there’s a gap of over 2 hours before the last bus at 23:15.

2. A number of comments that people find Melksham Station unfriendly and also the walking approach over the ‘yard’ unsafe.

3. Several people looking at how to get to / from the station and make other journeys around the town that would be solved by the suggested “16” bus route (Station - Town - Sandridge Road - MERR - Bowerhill Business - Hampton Park West and back the same route.

4. Concerns at train service frequency and reliability with many of the more informed people asking about the possibility of a passing loop

5. The lack of any such booklet for Trowbridge, Corsham, Calne and Chippenham and the lack of a current public transport map for Wiltshire.

None of these a surprise - what was a surprise was quite a few people doing a “no thank you” as they walked past, but then changing their mind and coming back and asking for a timetable … or the number who said “I don’t use the bus” but then adding “but actually I do when going in to Bath”; some glad of the enhanced Saturday evening service and would like to see it earlier in the week.

Also a high proportion of private car users who take an attitude of public transport being beneath then or too inconvenient for them - and for many that inconvenience is correct but over coming years can be made much less of an issue. There are also those - and in particular at Leekes - who are reliant on their cars and ability to drive, but who are not in the first flush of life and will face a serious challenge when they are no longer able to drive.

The whole timetable is 28 pages ... and has been proofread by all six operators. A lot of work and no easy way for us to know how effective it is; so many people look online (which has the advantage that it provides late changes, tracking, ticket purchase etc) but indications are that there is still something of a call for a local printed piece. It can be also be downloaded from https://www.mtug.org.uk/MKM_TransportBrochure25-26_web.pdf