Gains, Losses, Trials, Risks over the years

G - Gains,
L - Losses,
T - Trials,
R - Risks

The current ongoing issue (at Dilton Marsh) has encouraged me to think "is this a sensible campaign" to try to save a peak service there. And the conclusion I come to is - yes - absolutely it is. It's a question I have always asked myself, and always will, on any public transport campaign. Things need to be moved on / modernised / made fit for the future and sometimes that means accepting, perhaps sadly, the loss of a service for the greater good.

Looking at Melksham and some related constituency issues, here are some of the more notable concluded losses and gains that I have been close to over the last 20 years. Some dates may be subject to correction; all reported are the date the change happened.

L* - December 2006 - most trains through Melksham
T* - February 2007 - Online Passenger Forum (Coffee Shop)
G - December 2008 - Southbound Sunday train at Melksham
T* - Summer 2011 - Trail Sunday day trip service to Weymouth
G* - December 2013 - most trains at Melksham
G - Formation of Community Rail Partnership and later becoming official
G - May 2014 - Summer Sunday morning trains
G* - Summer 2014 - Melksham Rail Link Bus
G - Summer 2014 - Saturday through service to/from Weymouth
L* - Summer 2015 - Melksham Rail Link Bus
L* - 2015 - 234 bus route (evening)
R* - 2016 - All remaining evening and Sunday buses
G* - December 2017 - All year Sunday morning service
G* - 2018 - longer trains and station improvements to accommodate them
L - March 2020 - D3 bus route
G* - March 2020 - Evening runs on 273
L* - March 2020 - Half the Town Bus service
G - December 2021 - extra very early morning train
L* - December 2021 - Through trains Bradford-on-Avon to London (Waterloo)
G* - December 2023 - Saturday evening train from Westbury to Swindon
L - December 2023 - loss of extra Saturday round trips
L - December 2023 - Through trains Bradford-on-Avon to Brighton
G* - September 2024 - Sunday buses to Chippenham and Trowbridge
L - December 2024 - loss of very early morning Swindon train
G* - December 2024 - later evening train, Monday to Friday
G* - August 2025 - Melksham Neighbourhood Plan made, including rail public transport
G* - December 2025 - early morning train connects to Weymouth

Items marked "*" were what I would describe as key campaign items. That is NOT to suggest that I or we swung the balance on any of them - most of them are common sense, and our effect from the community is hypothetical.

Where something is marked "L*" it is a very sad loss, and looking back at all of those, I feel they were poor decisions and defeats for the community. The services lost were not neccessrily ideal ones, but their loss is still keenly felt where where no later gain shows

I've also looked through items marked "G*" and in all cases I am - err - relieved to report on their success. Sadly, the Rail Link bus got pulled for political reasons and at the cost of a large number of train journeys. And I have not documented the arrival of improved car parking at Melksham Station, its initial success, and then its failure when charges were introduced and almost all the users who had been regular user switched to driving to other stations. If they have to pay to park, they may as well do so at a station with far more frequent trains, and direct trains to where they want to go.

Not listed above - ongoing issues. This is a historic summary post.