Town’s electric bus day this Saturday

An electric bus will travel around the town on Saturday 17th September, for one day only. 

The bus will leave after the arrival of trains at 10:00 and 11:30 (from Swindon and Chippenham) and at 14:30 (from Trowbridge and Westbury). It will also leave from the Market Place at 10:15, 11:45, 13:45, 14:45 and 15:45.  

Organiser Graham Ellis said, “Our proposal for the near future (what we are testing) is for a scheduled public bus service to run hourly from the Railway Station via the town centre, Sandridge Road, East Melksham, Pathfinder Way and the Bowerhill and Hampton Park industrial areas to the Police Station, with the bus to arrive at the railway station to connect to and from trains, and to serve the industrial areas just before and after work (shift) times. There will be extensions to Asda and to Berryfield.” 

Bookings must be made to ride on the bus by contacting Melksham Town Council. When booking, people are asked to state which service (from the Market Place or Station) they would prefer to ride on and whether they will be bringing a guest or coming along alone. 

Please note: 

* Journeys on 17th September will only pick up passengers at the Market Place and Railway Station. 

* Pre-booking necessary and capacity limited. 

* There will be more space available on afternoon journeys. 

* We will endeavour to run on time but please bear in mind these are test journeys. 

* Test journeys include extra stops and will be slower than routine service. 

A demonstration and route testing of the electric bus was scheduled to coincide with ClimateFest that has been postponed to Saturday 2nd October but Melksham Transport User Group and Option 24/7 will still be there to promote and answer questions on public transport. 

Graham added, “We understand and agree the reason for postponing Climate Fest; our route testing proceeds, in muted form.” 

For more information and to book a space, ring, 01225 704187, for a map of the journey, visit, https://bit.ly/3DsIX3Q