Melksham Gets Summer Train Timetable

As a step towards the possible reordering and increasing of the train services across Wiltshire, there will be a Summer Sunday Trains service, connecting Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury.

Extra trains will trial a service on the norther section of the TransWilts line this summer on Sundays from 3rd July and 17th July to 28th August.

The trains are operated by First Great Western, at their regular fares and booked online through their regular booking system.

The summer timetable:

Bank of England Westbury 07:30,

Trowbridge 07:36,

Melksham 07:45,

Chippenham 07:55,

Swindon 08:13

The FGW connection arrives at London Paddington 09:39.

The return train from London at 17:00 gets back to Melksham at 18:44

Adult fares for a day return from Melksham to London are £44.00. "GroupSave" tickets save money and can be bought by groups of three or over travellers.

This is the first part of a campaign initiated by Melksham's Graham Ellis in his capacity as member of the Trans Wilts Community Rail Partnership and Paul Johnson, Chairman of Melksham's Knorr Bremse. They have been working alongside FGW to reintroduce a one-hour service running regularly between Swindon in the north of Wiltshire and Salisbury in the south.

This would have considerable effect on the region:

1. commuting by train becomes so much easier

2. regenerating the infrastructure - the train lines are already there

3. a huge and beneficial impact on the environment by keeping cars off the road

4. see an economic regeneration as businesses were attracted into the area by improved transport connections

5. tourism in the area around Melksham would be increased as visitors found it easier to get here.

So this is the first step to bringing more train services to Melksham. The results of the experiment over the summer will be closely monitored to see how many Melksham people use the service. Don't let this opportunity go to waste.