GRAHAM Ellis, press and publicity officer of the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, writes:
“Melksham’s new train service opens the gateway to over 2500 destination stations in the UK and many times that number across Europe.
“I took the opportunity on the second day of the new service to take the train from Melksham to Thun in Switzerland. An on time departure from Melksham on the Monday at 16:31, and an arrival at Thun the next day. A return trip on the Saturday, an overnight ferry berth into Harwich, and I arrived back in Melksham at 12:02 on the Sunday – together with around 20 other people travelling from Swindon to Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury or beyond.
For Gatwick Airport, Eurostar from St Pancras, or the ferry from Harwich or Holyhead, we’ve now got many more new options for international journeys. On both journeys I got to see some lovely scenery, do quite a bit of work (trains in the Netherlands and Germany have internet access), and arrive refreshed and ready to jump straight into my day job – which in Thun was presenting a training course on the Lua programming language, something which we are one of the few companies anywhere in the world to do.”
Train services now call at Melksham eight times per day in each direction, headed for Swindon (northbound) or Westbury (Southbound), where you can change for onward connections. Trains also call at Chippenham and Trowbridge, from where you can connect to Bath and Bristol.
Duncan Hames joins commuters on new TransWilts rail service
Duncan Hames, MP for Chippenham, joined commuters aboard the new TransWilts rail service on Monday morning 9th December.
Eight trains are now running in each direction along the line between Westbury and Swindon a day, Monday to Saturday, stopping at Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham. Funding for the improvements comes from a £4.25 million grant from the Department for Transport to Wiltshire Council.
Duncan met commuters as he sold and checked tickets on the first 7.30am train from Trowbridge to Swindon, calling at Melksham and Chippenham.
Duncan said, “It was great to have the chance to meet the commuters on the new regular train service serving Melksham and Chippenham, made possible by a grant from the Coalition Government. I’ve been working with the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership for a number of years to get this up and running, and am really pleased to see so many local people benefitting from it.”
First Great Western managing director Mark Hopwood said, “First Great Western has worked hard with Wiltshire Council with the support of the local user group to secure these additional services. We are delighted to be able to celebrate the start of these additional services. It is great news for passengers, allowing both commuters and leisure travellers a good value alternative to taking the car.”
Duncan has worked with the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, the rail industry and Wiltshire Council to secure the funding from the Government, a commitment to run the service from First Great Western and approval from Network Rail. He has written to ministers in support of the effort, met with them and, on several occasions, asked transport ministers to support it in the chamber of the House of Commons. He has also met with officials from Network Rail and First Great Western to overcome obstacles to successfully delivering the service.
