Many thanks for documenting that, Bob - a really interesting study. Real Time trains confirms 14 trains through Melksham in the 6 hours between midnight and 6 a.m. Of those, 11 were signifinatly late.
The "dance" can be done in some places - for example, with St Erth to St Ives where the trains are guaranteed to turn up on time, or in a pattern of lateness if one is late, the next presents late. That requires some exceptional action, such as the notice at St Erth that tells you that the St Ives train won't usually wait, and at St Ives where it's the same train and it automatically synchronises. It is - utterly - out of the practical question in Wiltshire where train passing the ends of the single line need to be combed in, and the trains that use the single line need to present exactly at a convenient time irrespective of delays getting there, and then to be able to escape it at the far end.
Multiple solutions options to increase practical, relaible capacity have been mooted. For more than a very modest further traffic increase, at least one of them and probably more need to be implemented. And of those multiple solutions, to be implemented, a number of them are not on that single track section from last point at Thingley to the first point at Bradford.
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