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| Our top banners All the pictures that we're using along the top of the pages are ones that we (that's Lisa and I) have taken of the train that runs Swindon - Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge - Westbury and associated topics. This train service is threatened with major curtailment with just a morning and evening commuter service remaining. So you might be amazed to read that only one of our pictures shows the current commuter train - so these are people making journeys that will no longer be available to them if the cuts go ahead.  The trackbed of the old railway line that used to run through Devizes. This picture is taken at Seend, just south of Melksham and shows where we're headed. Currently cuts of the majority of our trains will mean that few people will find it practical to get from and to Melksham on the odd train that remains. Losses will inevitably rise and the next step will be closure.  Waiting for a weekend train at Melksham Station  Chippenham Station, Sunday 28th August 2005, Lunchtime train from Swindon to Southampton (to call at Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Warminster, Salisbury and Romsey).  The sign at Melksham station is fading out and we sometimes feel that our train service is going the same way - and that's not through lack of caring or use.  Swindon Station on Saturday, 10th December 2005. The 13:35 from Melksham has just arrived and the Christmas Shoppers are heading out for the town. On Current plans, the very last day of Saturday service will be that same day next year.  The bay platform at the extreme end of Swindon station isn't the best lit of places to take a photo, but I managed to grab this shot of the late afternoon train arriving in from Westbury one saturday, with people gathering to get on for its return journey to Southampton.  On board a Saturday train between Melksham and Swindon.  Melksham Station, Saturday, 10th December 2005  On board a Saturday train between Melksham and Swindon.  Swindon, Saturday 10th December 2005. The Melksham train has arrived at platform 3 for a change - it usually uses platform 2, but with the extra main platform that's now open there's no longer a capacity problem.  Melksham Station, Saturday, 10th December 2005  Before dawn on a November Saturday - the first train to Swindon pulls in to Melksham. Although this service was suspended for 8 weeks and has only just been restored, there was a huddle of people in both the waiting area and bike shelter and the train left with about a dozen people on board.  Swindon Station, Sunday 28th August 2005, The train from Salisbury (via Westbury and Melksham) has just arrived, and is preparing to leave in a few minutes for Southampton (via Melksham, Westbury and Southampton).  Trowbridge, Tuesday, 30th August 2005. The Swindon to Southampton train paused to unload about a dozen passengers and pick up a some more before carrying on towards Westbury, Warminster, Salisbury, Romsey and Southampton  Melksham station, August 2005. Could this really be the middle of the day train? Yes, it was; some 30 people travelled on it to Melksham where about a dozen left the service and more joined.  Boarding the Swindon train on a miserable Saturday morning in November.  Melksham Station, Saturday, 10th December 2005  When there are engineering works on the line (or on other lines, and our is being used for the diversion of expresses), we get bus substitution. Here's a busy Sunday scene with the afternoon service at Melksham Station ... also proving that buses can make it to the station is the desire is there.  Melksham Station, October 2005. It gets busier rather than quiter; just look how many heads are popping out behind the umbrella  Melksham Station, middle of a weekday in October 2005. The station car park is small ... and full.  From Melksham, you can get excellent connections at certain times of day to London and Reading, and to Bath and Bristol. Picture is of Bristol station.  Melksham Town Centre, September 2005. There's already more than enough traffic to cause conjestion in Melksham, in Chippenham ,and on the notorious A350 between them. That's why more and more people have been using the train when they can.  Wiltshire is a county with the great open spaces of the Marlborough downs and Salisbury plain which attract so many tourists. The transWilts railway service from Swindon to Salisbury provides the only North-South rail link, and is twice as fast as using the bus for the same journey. Picture is of the Sanctuary, near Avebury.  The decision to slash our train service, telling us that it's little used, was made by civil servants at the SRA and now at the DfT. You'll find there names elsewhere on this site if you want to write to them. I've resisted the temptation to protest the case outside parliament, as seen in this picture, through I think the decision is a scandal perpetrated by peoplw who've probably never even travelled on the line to see for themselves. |
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