Families enjoy festive train ride

LOCAL families enjoyed a festive train ride from Melksham to Westbury last weekend with a very special guest – Father Christmas.

Around 50 adults and 40 children travelled on the train for a special Christmas trip organised by TransWilts Community Rail Partnership.

Graham Ellis, community rail officer at TransWilts said, “I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped with this year’s Santa Trip, both on the day and in the run up with designing publicity, adding carriages, wrapping presents and selling tickets.

“The biggest thank you of all is to Santa.  Although this is his busiest time of year, he somehow always manages to make time for the Melksham Rail User Group which organises the trip. Many people don’t realise it, but without Santa (who also chairs the TransWIlts Community Interest Company in his rest-of-year guise as Paul Johnson)  we wouldn’t have had our current train service at all – the work he’s put in, and very effectively,  has been key to the provision of the current trial service of eight trains each way per day, and to the success of that trial such that it continues as a permanent service  – which makes a huge difference in the lives of many people. I estimate over 20,000 different people now use the train to from or through Melksham every year, where before Paul, the figure would have struggled to exceed 1,000.

“I had the opportunity to speak with many of the people who came along and everyone had a really good time. It was the very first train ride for some of the children, and the first time that some of the adults had caught a train from Melksham; some, indeed, hadn’t realised where the station was until they came along and I’m sure we’ll see most of them again – if not before Christmas, then in the New Year.   

“Trains run every day until Christmas Eve, then restart on 27th December. There will be new timetables in due course but the big news is that the service carries on with no more than a minute or two changed here and there, and your trial period timetable is good right through the winter and up to next May.”