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New car park at Melksham Station - ideal for commuters from Seend, Hilperton, Yarnbrook and Holt

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2015-04-26 12:16:42 - Graham Ellis

Train travel is great - but for many people those final few miles from home to station make it less than ideal - especially in rural areas ... and Wiltshire has been characterised (but perhaps not correctly) as a "rural area".

With the aid of a "Local Sustainable Transport Fund" grant, Wiltshire's rail service, which used to be disjoint across the county has now been joined up. Eight trains each way per day run from Swindon to Westbury via Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge - some starting back at Gloucester, Stroud and Kemble and carrying on to Warminster, Salisbury and Southampton - and there's a through service to Frome too from 17th May this year. All of those trains offer connections further afield into places such as Bath and Bristol, Reading, London, the South West and South Wales. But it's also about how you get to the station to start your journey.

Under LSTF ... major works have been done at many stations; this includes car park work, cycle shelters, electric car charging points and ticket vending machines at various stations including Westbury, Trowbridge and Bradford--on Avon.

At Melksham station, a brand new car park opened in just the last few days provides around 4 times the number of spaces we used to have there - and that's excellent news because it's been getting rather tight. Melksham Station's located just off the A350 / A365 junction - so (unlike in other nearby towns) you can drive to the station without having to go into the worn centre - and that makes it the ideal railhead for travelling into Swindon from Sells Green, Semington, West Ashton, Steeple Ashton, Keevil, Yarnbrook and Hilperton ... Holt, Shaw, Atworth and Broughton Gifford too, as well as from Melksham itself.



If you live to the north / west of Melksham, you're within easy walking or cycling distance of the station (and foot / cycle access from Foundry Close is planned but awaits the linking up of the council land to the station). From the south and east side, the Melksham Rail Link bus from Bowerhill at 06:50 and 07:20 each morning, via the outer relief road, Melksham Forest and the Town Centre provides the link ... and it returns from the station in the evening shortley after the 17:36 and 18:52 train from Swindon, and the 18:32 train from Westbury, arrive.

During the day, bus routes 14, 234, x34, 272, x72 and Zigzag all pass near the station - though it has to admitted that connections aren't always good. And in the evening and on Sundays the 271 goes past as well.

P.S. Trains from Melksham Station ...

• Departures at 06:38s, 07:20n, 07:49n, 09:15s, 10:04n, 11:13s, 12:03n, 13:13s, 14:30n, 15:53s, 16:31n, 18:03s, 18:48n, 19:19s, 19:47n and 20:38s (Monday to Friday until December 2015)

• Departures at 07:48n, 08:37n, 09:02s, 09:46n, 11:02s, 11:48n, 13:02s, 13:48n, 15:02s, 15:21n, 15:48s, 16:49n, 18:02s, 18:48n, 20:02s and 21:34s (Saturdays until October 2015)

s - Southbound service for Trowbridge and Westbury. Change at Trowbridge for Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads.
n - Northbound service for Chippenham and Swindon. Change at Chippenham for Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads.

Up to 13 departures on Sundays too - please check with National Rail for times as they vary depending on engineering works.