for Melksham's public transport users

Trains at Melksham, Swindon, Chippenham, Trowbridge, Westbury ....... and connections to over 2,500 stations in Great Britain
Buses ... local, and to Bath, Devizes, Chippenham, Trowbridge, Corsham and Bradford-on-Avon
And for newcomers to our public transport

Station Information Board and passengers

for Melksham Public Transport Users -

Covid update - most public transport is back

Updated 20:00, 22.7.2020 - E&OE
Updated 07:00, 13.7.2020 Updated 08:00, 9.7.2020
Updated 08:00, 7.7.2020
Updated 12:00, 3.7.2020
Updated 13:00, 12.6.2020
Updated 14:00, 17.5.2020
Updated 08:00, 27.3.2020

We encourage you to start making more use of public transport again, but please try your first trip gently ... * Wear a face mask
* Follow social distancing rules
* Pay ahead or contactless
* Wash hands before and after journeys

PLEASE DO NOT TRAVEL UNLESS YOU HAVE TO for a few more days. But we want you to fill our buses and trains at some date soon. If you travel, wear a face mask, observe social distancing advise and reduce contact where possible. Thank you for observing this advise, and thank to bus and train companies and staff for providing services for key workers and those with a need to travel without other means.

22.7.2020 - National Express Resumes next Monday

13.7.2020 - as from today, full services are back on all buses. Trains are slightly reduced. National Express coach still suspended. Service 272 towards Devizes will not call at Coronation Road or Melksham Community Hospital due to ongoing road works, and will leave from the bus stop outside the Town Hall rather than the King's Arms Now normal route. See (here) for all timetables

Public Transport capacity for joutneys to, from and within Melksham is expected to be good from next Monday and we suggest that it might be the time for you to start trying out a few local journeys. Please just avoid the late buses out of Bath on 17th and 18th July!

If you travel on public transport you are now required to wear a facemask with exceptions such as if you have medical difficulties breathing, or for very young children

Public transport to, from and in Melksham - from Monday 27th July 2020

Daytime Bus service to Bath (routes 271, 272, 273 by Faresaver)
Twice every hour, Monday to Saturday
Every 2 hours on Sunday and Monday to Saturday evenings

Daytime Bus service to Devizes (routes 272, 273 by Faresaver)
every hour, Monday to Saturday daytime. Every 2 hours on Sundayi and Monday to Saturday evenings

Bus service to Trowbridge and Frome (route x34 by Faresaver)
Normal service Monday to Saturday daytime no service evenings or Sunday

Bus service to Chippenham (route x34 by Faresaver)
Normal service Monday to Saturday daytime no service evenings or Sunday

Bus services to Corsham and Bradford on Avon / Trowbridge (routes 68, 69 by Faresaver)
Normal service Monday to Saturday daytime no service evenings or Sunday

Bus services 14 and 15 - Melksham Town (operated by Fromebus)
Normal service (daytime, Monday to Saturday)
no service evenings or Sunday

National Express Coach - Frome to London via Melksham
Daily at 08:50 from Melksham (London at 12:20)
Return at 17:30 from Victoria Coach Station

Operated by Buses of Swindon - Monday to Friday only
x76 bus to Royal United Hospital
x76 bus to Calne and Marlborough
Normal service (one service each way)

Train service to Chippenham and Swindon
Monday to Friday - 05:32, 07:51, 10:00, 12:31, 14:31, 16:40 and 18:54
Saturday - 07:52, 10:20, 12:20, 14:22, 16:51 and 18:50
Sunday - 08:37, 11:00, 15:02, 17:06, 18:51 and 20:34
return trains leave Swindon 27 minutes before departure times of WESTBURY trains and Chippenham 10 minutes before.

Train service to Trowbridge and Westbury
Monday to Friday - 06:36, 09:08, 11:29, 13:38, 15:38, 18:00 and 21:09
Saturday - 08:59, 11:31, 13:31, 15:32, 17:58, and 19:57
Sunday - 09:37, 12:06, 16:04, 18:10, 19:52 and 21:35
return trains leave Westbury 17 minutes before departure times of SWINDON trains and Trowbridge 10 minutes before.

Public Transport services still suspended
Trains are running 7 days a week but additional peak services, and one trip each in the middle of the day on Saturdays and Sundays are suspended until September.

Faresaver can be contacted on 01249 444444 online at http://www.faresaver.co.uk
FromeBus can be contacted on 01373 471474 online at http://www.fromebus.co.uk
Buses of Swindon can be contacted on 01793 428428 online at https://www.swindonbus.co.uk
GWR can be contacted on 0345 7 000 125 online at https://www.gwr.com

Further afield ...
Buses beyond Bath - most services running
GWR train services - London to Bristol services (via Chippenham) half hourly

Data provided to the best of our knowledge, but this is a changing situation and we suggest you check with the operators if in any doubt.

Health advise on travelling by public transport ...
* Pay contactless or online before you travel if you can
* Wash hands regularly and follow general health guidelines
* Keep your social distance
* Travel at quiter times
* Always wear a facemask on the bus or train
National Rail travel advise at
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/coronavirus

Other links ...
Melksham Community Group


Train and passengers at Melksham Station

Our mission is to maintain and enhance facilities at Melksham station, and to act as an independent voice of the station users.

Melksham is served by up to 18 trains a day on the line from Swindon to Westbury via Chippenham and Trowbridge.

Melksham Railway Station was closed in “the Beeching Era” - 1966. It re-opened in 1985, with British Rail, local councils and passengers partnering to bring back at least a part of the facility that had been so missed in the area.

The Melksham Railway Development Group (MRDG) was a community group that has worked hard over the years to support the station, though sometimes when the service was so poor it looked like it was lost again, and indeed if it weren’t for MRDG, Melksham might not have a station or train service today. Five years ago, MRDG working with the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, persuaded Wiltshire Council to sponsor, the Department for Transport to fund and GWR to run a three year trial of addition trains, and they have been very successful – for the first time since its re-opening, Melksham now has sufficient trains for passenger numbers to have grown well, and although the group is still very much concerned with further development, it has been renamed the Melksham Rail User Group (MRUG)

Melksham Rail User Group runs on a small budget kindly funded by Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Councils, and our membership includes representatives of both organisations. Events such as the Santa trips are costed to break even - their main intent is to publicise and promote the station and trains that serve it; any profit made is ploughed back into group funds. All work done for "MRUG" by the members is on a voluntary basis, for which the group is grateful.

The Group is also a member of the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, supporting the use and growth of local and regional passenger train services on the Swindon to Westbury line via Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge, with service on to Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury. It is also a 'friend' of the Association of Cimmunity Rail Partnerships (ACoRP).

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Trains
Heading towards London until June 2024
Heading towards Southampton until June 2024
 
Rail User Group (West Wilts)
Online Forum (Great Western Coffee Shop)

Buses
Times - between towns
Times - town bus
Bus User Group (Option 24/7)

The Melksham [Rail / Transport] User Group and its predecessors have partnered with the train operators over the years to promote growth of services and their use. However, we are embarrassed to promote the current service with its awful reliability record. For regular users who are robust to the issues it is still useful - for newcomers there's a significant risk of their first planned use going wrong, quite apart from the worry beforehand of not knowing if it will run.

Four officers of the group met in December 2022, and we have decided on a hiatus until the spring. We'll maintain insurance and CRN membership; our annual Zoom account runs until mid-year and we will occasionally feed online media and deal with correspondence from it. In the meantime, we also recommend you to the groups linked above.

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Coming SOOOON ...

A new approach