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Saturday train to Swindon - two weeks in

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-12-21 21:11:46 - Graham Ellis

This morning, a Saturday, Lisa and I rode the 11:47 train into Swindon. It was only the second time this train has run, and following trains at 07:37, 08:27 and 09:37, I expected it to be quite quiet... those people who wanted to do their Christmas shopping have left two or three hours earlier.

There was a handful of people on Melksham Station when we got there - in good time to take a look at additional parking, new station signs, and a noticeboard that's under the lights so it can be seen in the early morning and evening.

And more people arrived. Few by their own car (though we were in the new overflow spaces, so clearly earlier trains had taken people too); several by taxi - a couple of taxis, a number dropped off, and more on foot.



No fewer than 23 people joined that train... and with 34 on board that was 57 people up to Chippenham. One off and seven on, and that's 63 out of 72 seats occupied into Swindon. Err - gobsmacked!



We came back on the 15:22. That's one of the 'original' trains - until 2 weeks ago it was the first southbound train of the day on a Saturday; now it follows 45 minutes behind the two-hourly service that's been running all morning. So my hopes weren't high. The train turns out to be unit 150927 - now I'm not normally a spotter, but I know this one as it's uniquely 3 carriages long, with 3 + 2 seating and an awful lot of capacity. So it felt "empty". And yet... it wasn't; 13 passengers from Swindon, one off and 5 on at Chippenham and that makes 17 to Melksham, of whom 7 got off. Not huge numbers, but very early days - and for this train I would only target 20 to 30 passengers by next Easter; we're getting there - can't be judged on a single Saturday, nor really in the lead up to Christmas. But looking good. And the weather was awful - look what it had done to the railway!