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Comparing Alloa and Melksham - stations and services

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-06-23 16:19:32 - Graham Ellis

Alloa is a town in central Scotland. The 2001 census describes it havinga population of just under 19,000 - so at that point it was slightly smaller than Melksham. I was there last night, and it's mostly an old town, so I'm thinking that the population has not grown significantly.

Like Melksham, Alloa lost its train services as a result of Dr Beeching's report and its aftermath. And, like Melksham, the station has been reopened; much more recently, in fact, and with major line reconstruction. So Alloa Station and services make for a very interesting comparison - a what CAN be done ...

I travelled to Alloa on the 17:35 from Edinburgh - a four car train, with was "nesting" - nearly every seat taken - as the busiest point on the journey after it had picked up at Haymarket and Edinburgh Park. 2 x class 158 units - the same model we have on services such as the interregional Portsmouth to Cardiff service, but there seemed to be a lot more luggage space. In the morning, I travelled back in to Edinburgh on the 07:39 from Alloa, which got me there at about a quarter to 8. Just right for a day's work. There are only a couple of Edinburgh trains from Alloa each day, but one is a useful true peak service - giving just under 9 hours in Edinburgh, compared to the "commuter" train from Melksham to Swindon that give you an excessive 11 hours there. There are also other services (hourly through the day) from Glasgow to Alloa, which mean that if the Edinburgh commuter train isn't at the right time one day - if you get help up at work - you can still get home.


I wouldn't claim a brilliant loading on the train on the way in to Alloa - in fact I was concerned at how empty my carriage was until I realised that it was furthest from the gate. Good sprinking of people on the way off, and in the peak services are quite frequent when you add in the "Glasgows" - there's a loop between Alloa and Stirling, and in both the evening and morning we passed another train there.


Alloa town has its depressing element, but at the same time efforts have been made to brighten it up. I suspect it has many of the trails and tribulations of some of the West Wilts town, but I wasn't there long enough to make a study, nor during the day to see how the shops were doing. I did notice a church converted to a nightclub, and wonder whether St Michael's could come to that in due course.


Like Melksham, Alloa used to have a large station complex - here's where it was. But unlike Melksham, where a short length of the old platform has been reopened to provide a new station, the old site has been turned into a park. The local authority has built a single building multifacility on one end of it (I presume that the area was available when there was no railway, and it's near the town)


And here is the new station. There's a covered waiting room with automatic doors, a machine from which you can buy tickets with a credit card and pick up previously ordered ones (no absurdity of having to go to Stirling to pick up you tickets from Alloa, as we have to do in Melksham - a trip to Chippenham). And look outside the station - Plenty of parking, Bus stop, Taxi Rank and lots of spaces for cycles. Perhaps we should take some of the best practices that we see in Alloa and apply them on the TransWilts?