Report - day trip from Swindon / Chippenham / Melksham to Weymouth
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-08-07 23:53:16 - Graham EllisWe had a fantastic day out in Weymouth - a train that was "nearly every seat taken" by the time it got to Westbury on the way down, a great time had by all in Weymouth, and a good ride back in the evening. In fact we got a real holiday atmosphere, with a number of people coming for their second time, and many more looking to re-so the trip sometime this month.
This is very much a "trial" service - and learning from experience the return train was longer than the previous week, and we had more provision on the ground at Weymouth on the return to help people with information about which was the right train (and carriages) for them to get into.
Swindon to Weymouth was one of the traditional routes taken for day trips in the past, being an old main line route from the early days of the railways. The magnificent uptake that we've had on very limited publicity confirms a latent demand that we've suspected but (until this summer) been unable to confirm. This proof of usage has further implications too - it provides further evidence to help validate the methodology used to work out what's an appropriate service for the Swindon - Westbury section of the line (and then the service on to Salisbury) and makes our case even more robust for 11 trains each way (Swindon - Salisbury via Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Dilton Marsh and Warminster) in the next franchise for which the specification is currently being prepared at the Department for Transport. That casework has revealed some quite startling conclusions, such as the fact that the 3 trains that run in commuter time from Warminster / Westbury / Trowbridge / Melksham to Swindon would probably be running "nearly every seat taken" within a very short time of the service being improved to that level.
The Weymouth service runs again on Sundays until the end of this month - from Swindon at 08:20, Chippenham at 08:35, Melksham at 08:45 and Trowbridge at 08:55 to Weymouth. It gets to Weymouth at a quarter to eleven, and returns at 5 to six. There's no need to change trains on the way down or back, and the fare from Swindon in just 15.60 per adult / 7.80 per child. For groups of 3 or more, a Groupsave ticket makes it even cheaper, as 3 or 4 adults can travel for the price of 2, and children pay just 1 pound each.
Weymouth is a very traditional beach destination ... Punch and Judy, Amusement Arcades, Donkey Rides, Open Top buses and much more including (of course) sand
There's great beauty and a lot of history too - here at the Nothe Fort - a "Palmerston Folly" as you'll learn from the exhibition there - you can see over the bay, to the cliffs of the Jurassic coast, and watch the sailing in the bay, and the high speed catamaran to the Channel Islands arrive and leave.
Weymouth has all manner of places you can eat indoors and outdoors - on a fine day, enjoy the harbour.
For a good friend of mine, who's a connisseur of the English Breakfast, I offer Moby Dick's on the seafront - just a couple of hundred yards from the railway station when we arrived
Crabbing off the stone pier
And if all of this is too much for you ... just relax and enjoy the sun