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Bus times - Chippenham Station to Melksham, with London connections

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-08-25 10:39:32 - Graham Ellis

Access to Melksham for business visitors from far and wide is vital for our international and thriving business base in the town. And whilst many of those visitors drive, many do not - either they're international visitors who prefer not to drive on the left, or they prefer to use public transport. And that's especially the case for visitors to two of our largest employers, who are in the transport industry. Many visitors arrive the evening before their meetings, so getting to Melksham in the evening is important.

As from 2nd September 2012, buses from Chippenham Station to Melksham are reduced from 7 to 6 per day (Monday to Saturday) and retimed.

Service until 1st September

PaddingtonChippenhamChippenhamMelksham
(depart)(arrive)(leave) (arrive)
14:00 15:09 15:17 15:44
15:00 16:09 16:37 17:04
16:00 17:11 17:3518:02
17:00 18:13 18:42 19:04
18:00 19:14 19:24 19:44
19:00 20:14 20:44 21:04
20:45 21:5722:10 22:30


Service from 3rd September

PaddingtonChippenham ChippenhamMelksham
(depart)(arrive)(leave) (arrive)
14:00 15:09 15:17 15:45
15:00 16:0916:37 17:05
16:00 17:11 17:3718:05
17:00 18:13 18:41 19:02
17:30 18:43 19:16 19:37
20:45 21:57 22:26 22:47



• The mid evening bus from Chippenham (20:44) has been WITHDRAWN (it still runs Melksham to Trowbridge, which has been a less used section of the route!)
• The 19:24 bus has been retimed to 19:16 (why?), meaning a 30 minute earlier Paddington departure (you can't catch a 19:16 bus off a 19:14 train arrival)
• The 22:10 bus has been retimed to 22:26 (why?), meaning a 15 minute longer wait at Chippenham

Where is the co-ordination? Where is the logic? Where was the consultation and discussion with local communities and bus users? First run the trains, First run the buses, so it's not exactly as if you're looking at commercial competition here.

This week, I have a choice of three evening trains I can catch if I miss the evening train to Melksham, with an average journey time of 107 minutes. From next week, there will be just one train I can catch, on which I'll take 122 minutes to make the journey. If someone had set out to destroy the usefulness of a service for businessmen wanting to come to Melksham in the evening, they couldn't have done a much better job. Perhaps the new timetable was configured by a Chippenham Taxi driver, eager to charge £20.00 plus per ride for the six miles!