| Archived Save the Train forum articles - 2005 to 2010. See below
From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8566 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Sunday, 11th November 2007 Monday to Friday. From Melksham at 07:17, change at Swindon, Paddington at 09:06 From Melksham at 19:47, change at Swindon, Paddington at 21:30 From Paddington at 17:45, change at Swindon, Melksham at 19:11 (This is the only viable train from London to Melksham) Saturday From Melksham at 09:18, change at Swindon, Paddington at 10:59 From Melksham at 15:19, change at Swindon, Paddington at 17:15 From Paddington at 14:15, change at Swindon, Melksham at 15:58 (Note - final timetable says 15:38 but seems to be a misprint!) From Paddington at 20:00, change at Swindon, Melksham at 21:34 Sunday From Melksham at 17:21, change at Swindon, Paddington at 19:10 From Melksham at 19:51, change at Swindon, Paddington at 21:40 From Paddington at 17:07, change at Swindon, Melksham at 18:57 (This is the only viable train from London to Melksham) Melksham is a growing town - current population around 24000 - situated about 100 miles to the west of London, and served by the TransWilts railway line. Services are limied at present - the timetable above represents the complete practical service for journeys to and from London. Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8578 Written by Dawn on Monday, 12th November 2007 Just tried National Rail website to check connection times from Swindon and the only train shown for Melksham is via Bath and Trowbridge arriving 19:45. Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8763 Written by Dawn on Friday, 23rd November 2007 FWG have replied to my email stating that the Swindon to Westbury evening service is being withdrawn from December! Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8764 Written by Lee on Friday, 23rd November 2007 [quote author=Dawn link=topic=4694.msg8763#msg8763 date=1195830818] FWG have replied to my email stating that the Swindon to Westbury evening service is being withdrawn from December! [/quote] Could you possibly post a copy of this e-mail on the forum , and also on the First Great Western Coffee Shop Forum , please Dawn? I would also greatly appreciate a copy being sent to me via e-mail at canber@hotmail.co.uk , so I can chase this up. Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8765 Written by Dawn on Friday, 23rd November 2007 Will do Lee. It's on my home account so I'll try and remember to do it tonight. Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8766 Written by Lee on Friday, 23rd November 2007 Thanks Dawn. Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8767 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 23rd November 2007 I have just asked for Swindon to Melksham for 12th December (Wednesday) on the journey planner. For 17:00 departure it said "no suitable trains" and for 18:00 it gave me 06:18 the next morning .... Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8768 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 23rd November 2007 In view of Dawn's comments and my own need to go up to Swindon on 12th December (a Wednesday), I called 08457 000 125 and selected the "train times" option ... ended up speaking with Jane at National Rail Enquiries. She advised me for the evening peak to catch the 18:31, cahnge at Bath (19:00 to 19:07) and Trowbridge (19:28 to 19:38) for a Melksham arrival at 19:47. She told me that was not a normal ticket route and I would have to buy two tickets for my journey. I asked her if she had all the trains up on her screen, and she said that she did. She told me that the earlier one was 06:18 and the next one was 06:18 the next morning. "What - nothing in the evening peak?". She looked back at the week before and told me that the current 18:42 will no longer be running. "It looks like they have withdrawn that train". Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8769 Written by Lee on Friday, 23rd November 2007 The 1845 is in the FGW timetable (link below.) http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/DEC%202007%20PTT/Swindon%20to%20Westbury.pdf Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8771 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Friday, 23rd November 2007 From FGW route manager: [quote] Fear not, this is NR failing to upload certain trains again - clearly they Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8798 Written by Dawn on Monday, 26th November 2007 Lee as promised. Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8799 Written by Industry Insider on Monday, 26th November 2007 A blatant case of the left leg not knowing what the right leg is doing, and it's ended up kicking it again! Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8805 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Monday, 26th November 2007 Agreed - but what worries me is that "Joe Public" doesn't realise that elements of the service that provides information isn't getting it right .... he tends to believe what he's told by the TOC and National Rail enquiry service ... which I've just asked for London to Melksham on 12th December and it still gave me Paddington 17:33, Melksham 21:47 [via Westbury]. Open Single ticket - sixty pounds and fifty pence (via Westbury is, of course, more expensive than via Swindon). Booking ahead and there are some cheaper fares at the moment ... Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8811 Written by Industry Insider on Tuesday, 27th November 2007 And you'll probably find that the train in question is missing on lots of other places such as 'A-Z' departure boards at stations, and the new privately printed national rail timetable that will have bled from that incomplete database of trains. All of which will lead to reduced usage of the service (however minor). Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8813 Written by Lee on Tuesday, 27th November 2007 Response from Andrew Griffiths : "NR were alerted to this last week and asked to correct ASAP - and check for other missing / incorrect entries. Re: From December 2007 - London to Melksham trains / connections - 4694/8882 Written by admin (Graham Ellis) on Sunday, 2nd December 2007 Been a struggle ... but looks like the issues have been fixed (if I were a cynic I would say "some of them" as I've only done one test, or course!). Excellent news - people can now FIND OUT aboout the services that are still running, which is a necessary step towards getting them used! link to index of articles |
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Save the Train was the campaign to bring an approriate train service back to and through Melksham. Most big contributors are still around writing at the Coffee shop forum where new members are very welcome. The train has been saved - sort of - we have stepped back up from an unusable service to a poorish one but it's doing very well. We did that through setting up the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership. That fulfilled its early objectives; it has been taken over by local and regional government types who are now doing medium and long term work. The team from this forun can also be found at the Melksham Rail User Group (which was the Melksham Rail Development Group at the time these articles were written and we had no users. We mustn't loose sight, though, that the train service remains poor and needs our community support in marketing and campaigning to keep it going in a positive direction ... and all the more so when we're expecting to find a different normallity once we get out of the Coronavirus Pandemic and head for zero carbon via the climate crisis. Yes, it's saved ... it's now a key community facility ... the need for enhancement and the strong and near-universal local support remain, and the rail industry and goverment remain slow to move and provide the enhancements even to level us up with other towns. Please support the Melksham Rail User Group - now very much in partnership rather than protest with the rail industry and local government, including GWR, TransWilts and unitary and town councils. And please use the trains and buses, and cycle and walk when you can. -- Graham Ellis, (webmaster), February 2021 | |||
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