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Chippenham to Salisbury by public transport - what we have and what we could have

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2016-03-26 09:50:26 - Graham Ellis

Salisbury is the largest urban area in Wiltshire, and Chippenham is the second largest. They're just 30 miles apart at the crow flies, 35 miles by road on the recommended route, And yet the journey between them by public transport isn't straightforward.

Twice a day on Monday to Friday only there's a direct train from Chippenham to Salisbury - at 06:29 and again at 19:09 ( really useful times for people going for the day - NOT) and there are no direct trains back at all. A further 6 times a day (8 trains on Saturday, 5 or 6 on Sunday), you can catch the TransWilts train to Trowbridge or Westbury and change there. Or you can catch a Bristol express from Chippenham and "dogleg" back out of the county via Bath Spa. By bus, you'll take 2 or 3 hours, with the last practical service of the day being at 16:04, arriving in Salisbury at 18:52 with a change at Devizes.

I have been aware of the rather hit and miss nature of services between our two biggest population centres for years. 2013 improvements to the TransWilts train service have somewhat alleviated the issue, but there's still a gap in departured from Chippenham between 06:29 and 09:06 via the TransWilts, with connections at Westbury sometimes involving a wait of half an hour or more, and with connections at Bath (if you dogleg) being a bit random and inconvenient too.

The situation is steeped in history. Chippenham and West Wiltshire naturally fall within the Bath / Bristol economic catchment area - they look west. Whereas Salsibury, to the south of the Plain, looks to the Solent area around Southamton and Portsmouth. And up until a few years ago, Wiltshire County Council was relatively lighweight so there was less of a tie, with district councils being the more local division of political and economic areas. In those days, too, less people travelled by train - looking back 10 years, passenger journeys at Chippenham have grown by 51% and at Chippenham by 26%.

Ticketing / fares structures / informamation for this rail journey reflect the nature of the service between the two major urban areas, which is that the service is available simply as a "fallout" of other services - and it's all the more amazing that this remains the case as Chippenham and Salisbury should really be just intermediate stations on a regular service between Swindon - that near-City that's so big that it's its own adminsitration authority outside Wiltshire, and the powerhouse, major port and economic driver that's Southampton with its freight, cruise liners and airport.

Some joined up thinking is needed (and, at last, I think we're getting there). Take the TransWits train. Take the curious ragbag of services that run from Westbury just to Warminster, or to Salisbury, or to Southampton. Take the Salisbury to Southanpton (and on a loop back via the airport and Easleigh) services. Each of them has times where there's a train sitting idle - shockingly so in the case of one of the services - at one or other end of the journey. All use trains of the same length / service group. Like I say - time for joined up thinking! With five or six 'units' - depending on whether you include the loop back via Chandler's Ford in the service or run it separately, you could provide an hourly service all the way - and if you take a look at the number of trains currently running on the various services, you'll find that what I'm suggesting really ain't much more. It covers exisiting traffic. And it allow those same service trains to provide so much more at the same time.

Imagine - through trains at 06:45 and hourly to 21:45 from Chippenham to Salisbury and beyond. Trains arriving back at 06:25 and hourly to 22:25, with a late 00:25 arrival. It could (and should) be done. Fine tuning needed, as is the casewith any developmemt - but it's the TransWilts Vision 2020 strategy. The difference in what I write today is that I've baised the same story to one particukar station pair to illustrate just one benefit.