Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2014-04-26 17:41:00 - Graham Ellis
There's a new train timetable starting in 3 weeks. And with it a couple of extra trains on Sundays, and an opportunity to reach more new markets.
At the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, we have the role of helping to promote these services - being the community's eyes, ears and ambassadors. We're feeding back to First Great Western and to Wiltshire Council what we hear - most of which is very positive, but there are a couple of niggles / gaps that may be fixable - and we're looking to use our own resources and limited budget to assist with local and community-specific promotions and activities.
How best to spend that budget? A couple of weeks ago, the Melksham Community Area Partnership, working alongside us, asked people how they had heard about us so far, what they knew, whether they had used the new services, and what their typical journeys were. The idea of this survey was to help us learn what's been effective so that we can target for the next few months and be even more effective.
Before I post up the first of these results, a word of caution. By nature, these results are going to have a bias towards respondents who are (a) online, (b) from Melksham and are (c) aware and interested. So we expected quite low figures from sources like the TIC (Tourist Information Centre) even though we know they have been very busy indeed with rail enquiries.
Anyway - some results
Q1 How have you heard about the increased number of trains between Swindon and Westbury (select all that apply)?
Here are the complete texts of the possible answers as they are truncated on the histogram:
Word of Mouth (e.g. neighbour, friend or family)
First Great Western website
Rail passenger web forum (e.g. First Great Western Coffee Shop)
Leaflet through the door
Local independent newspaper (e.g. Melksham Independent News, White Horse News)
Local newspaper (other)
Parish magazine (e.g. Bowerhill Villager)
Radio (e.g. BBC Wiltshire Sound)
Personal Journey Planner
Connecting Wiltshire website
Tourist Information Centre
Library
Town Hall
Online search engine (e.g. Google)
Facebook and other social media sites
Community Website (e.g. Melksham People, Our Community Matters)
Poster or information at a station
National Rail or similar
West Wilts Rail Users Group
Other (please specify) ... here's what they specified
1 poster on notice board
2 Wellhouse manor
3 Clleagues from work
4 TransWiltswebsite
5 member of MRDG
6 Graham Ellis - Horse's Mouth
7 Wiltshire Council
8 Via thissurvey
9 email
10 www.trainline.co.uk
11 VisitWiltshire
Q2 Where do you go to find the train times, fares and other information you need?
Phone First Great Western
Phone National Rail
Check First Great Western website
Check National Rail website
Visit Red Spotted Hanky, the Trainline etc
Visit BR Fares website
Go to the station
Ask at Tourist Information Centre
Facebook
Ask a friend
Other (please specify) ... here's what they specifie
Traveline web site
train fares, when purchasing ticket on-train
National rail app
leaflet
www.trainline.co.uk
internet
Transport Direct website.
Android application on phone
Realtimetrain website
i don't need them
Never needed to find out as I don't use the train
Q6 What information do you look for before you embark on a train journey?
Train departure times
Return train times
Fares
Onward Connections
Where to obtain tickets
Whether there is level access at the station(s)
What can you take with you (and what can't you take)
Are there refreshments available?
Are there lavatories available?
Other (please specify) ... here's what they specified)
i don't need an inconvient, expensive train. i have a car
Not really applicable
Q8 Which of the following were you aware of?
Group Save - 3 or 4 people travelling together for the price of 2
Heart of Wessex Ranger - unlimited travel between Swindon, Weymouth and Bristol for a day
Freedom of Severn and Solent tickets - unlimited use of all National Rail services in a region from Portsmouth to Cardiff, Weymouth to Worcester and Tiverton to Swindon
Your train ticket back to Melksham or Trowbridge is also valid from Chippenham station on the last bus of the day (22:26)
The Melksham Rail Link bus - a free commuter service to and from the station for rail passengers
Lower fares for 2014, for example, Westbury to Swindon 7 day season ticket £39 via Melksham (was £69 in 2013)
None of these
This question was asked before we were aware of changes to the GroupSave system, which will give a 34% discount off most First Great Western adult off peak journeys for groups of 3 or more travellin together when it's revised on 18th May. The purpose of the changes is to reduce anomolies, and to amend some of the discounts which 'unsustainable and abstractive'. We are in the process of updating literature to reflect the changes.
Please ignore the first "none of these" on the histogram ... that was a deleted option on the survey but somehow came back on the diagram. The second "none of these" at 38% is the valid one.
Further questions related to whether our respondents had (or had not) used the train prior to December 2013, and whether theyhave used it since. They related to journeys made and potentially to be made. And they asked questions to help us establish the geographic and age profile of our sample. These may be posted separately. I have already documented and answered ([here]) additional comments and questions that were written in by our respondents.)
