What will help people make better (appropriate) use of public transport?

Jump down to the Melksham ticket machine "scam"
Jump down to my journey observations and lessons
Jump down to my conclusion as to what might be done

Information - cost - connectivity - comfort - frequency - reliability - all so well illustrated yesterday.

Lets's start with cost - but you will see every element came in here during journey from home in Melksham, England to my destinations (Mill Hill and Clapton) in London, and my return later in the day

From Chris Hinchcliff MP (Labour, new intake 2024) on Facebook

Rail fares in the UK are away too high. This is spot on from We Own It. The broken privatised system is ripping off passengers getting on at Letchworth, Baldock, Ashwell, Royston, Bayford, Watton-at-Stone. Public ownership must mean more affordable journeys that's why I've tabled an amendment to the Rail Bill to create a GB Rail Card that delivers cheaper fares for everyone across the country.

I have long advocated railcard available for all (or indeed a public transport card) - a loyalty card works for you if you are NOT young, NOT old, NOT ex forces, NOT disabled, NOT a resident of Cornwall, NOT travelling with a child etc; that headline £55 per 100 miles dropping with a loyalty card to £36 which will encourage more sustainable use of public transport.

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I was in the South East (London area) yesterday, travelling around by public transport. For sure it was busy - at times over-busy - but there was no need to plan ahead during the day. There is a whole different mentality. Looking at the way the price of diesel has rocketed in recent days - an opportunity, perchance, to suggest people don't drive but take the bus or train. Yes, I am aware that many buses and many trains need that same fuel and have the costs which need to be met, but the fuel cost per occupied seat could be so much less than the car fuel cost per occupied seat?

We are fortunate to have an electric car, and solar panel, such that we refuel our car virtually extra cost-free. It doesn't make motoring free - we still have insurance, we now have road tax, we have maintenance and MOT, we may have parking changes or the hidden cost of parking in higher prices for goods we buy at a shop with parking. And if we drive, we are often stuck in the traffic whereas bus lanes and railway lines where they exist help us slice through the journey and make in quickly.

What holds us back from public transport? Matters of cost, reliability, frequency, connectivity, information, comfort and safety. ... let's see how those line up from Melksham for my trip

Yesterday (Saturday 14.3.2026) , I was offered a £94.90 standard off peak return to London from the ticket machine at Melksham Station. Bit overpriced? "Popular destination" for sure, but not a popular price. I preferred the £79.60 super off peak travel card - £15 cheaper and valid on any train "via Swindon" - which every connection is on a Saturday. And that ticket provides unlimited use of Transport for London underground, rail and bus services in London for the day too. Still looking at the price - I have a railcard in one of the privileged groups and that brought my fare down to £53. No extras to pay as I visited Clapton and Mill Hill (which would have together been an extra £12.80 / Tfl farecap), as well as old stomping grounds around The Angel, Islington.

I paid £53. Without a railcard I would have paid £79.60. Buying from the ticket machine front panel, I would have ended up paying £107.70 and no-one there to ask.

As a side issue, the ticket machine at Melksham Station was also offering on its front panel of "Popular Destinations" a day return to Trowbridge at £14.40 "Standard off peak day return". Why?

That is a ripoff - it's my belief that a day return for the journey - 10 minutes each way on any direct train except the 06:29 on Mondays to Fridays - is available at £5.80; price rises to £6.10 if you want to use the 06:29. The £14.40 fare, as far as I can make out, allows to to travel via Chippenham and Bath Spa with changes at both - and would rise to £18.30 for the first three Monday to Friday options - 06:29, 07:21 and 08:02. I would normally pay £5.80, or £3.80 with my railcard and very few people to my knowledge need the option of the long way.

To the right - from the brfares website

Let's take a further look at yesterday

Information - cost - connectivity - comfort - frequency - reliability - all so well illustrated
I set off in the morning at 07:10 - the bus outside my home to the stop nearest to the station. The bus driver has a trainee with him and was commenting on the route - "the railway station is there" he said "it's crazy that we don't stop here". Indeed it is.

The bus dropped me off at 07:24 - not really a "connection" into the train at 08:02; I pottered back along the main road, relieved that I still have my senses and mobility to be able to cross the road without a formal crossing, lots of traffic, awkward curbs. Got to the area of the station at about 07:35. Next bus - on a Saturday not until after the train has left - next train not until 10:02. I could have quicker walked from home, which my app tells me is 1.56kms from home.

Waiting at the station? Pleasant enough on a cold, bright morning, and time passed chatting with a local gent walking his dog. A cup of coffee while I waited would have been welcome; I lucked on the company and I could have done with the loo. My friend was telling me how useful a loo would be; not uncommon to find human excrement on the path and in the bushes down there to the side of the tail of the council's road. He would love to carry on his walk past that road tail into Foundry Close and was telling me how people did that while the fence that blocks one area of public road from the other was out through storm damage.

Train (to Swindon) reasonable busy, no ticket check - veritable flood of people by the time we got to Swindon. Loo used at Swindon; £4.30 for a rushed coffee was something I skipped, as the London train wasn't a long wait. Loo was used. Hoped for a coffee on the train, but the catering trolley - one for a nine carriage train - did not appear. Seat felt broken - very uncomfortable. Tickets not checked either, in fact no staff seen, and we arrived on time into Platform 1 at Paddington, no ticket check their either.

Paddington onwards to Victoria - I knew I could take the No. 36 bus or the "Circle Line" and I opted for the Circle Line - turn out the circle was "broken" but London Transport is such a network that train described as "District" and headed for Barking via Victoria turned up in a couple of minutes and got me there. A good example of an obvious alternative provided when things aren't running the usual timetable.


I'm skipping over London experiences during the day - keeping this thread / story to a Melksham-centric analysis.

Homeward from City station (near St Pauls, the Old Bailey, Smithfield and Barts) where I travelled through and around between home and Uni for four years in the early 70s. In those days it was an upper level terminus station "Holborn Viaduct" but now it is a low level through Station and the "City" name is right, between and beside the city itself, and in the quieter area before Westminster and the West End.

In theory ... 15:45 at City Thameslink, change at Farrington, Paddington and Swindon, 17:59 arrival at Melksham Station, home with a walk from the station by 18:30 was the plan; on a Saturday, the final bus of the day from anywhere near the station to our home is at 17:25; there are other not far from home, but it's easier to walk the whole way. Anyway - that was the theory. Plan A

15:52 train from City ... but it failed to stop at Farringdon (looks like the station or platform was closed) so carried on to St Pancras. Fair enough - but it's a LONG walk there to the slower Hammersmith and City line platform for Paddington which - when I got there - was also closed off with staff milling around turning away wannabe customers. Plan B

OK - plans A and B had failed - Plan C would have been the 205 bus. Except Transport for London withdrew that from Paddington last year, and I really didn't want to take two buses (205 to Harley Street and a change there) so I opened for Plan D. Victoria line to Oxford Circus, to change onto Bakerloo line to Paddington. Gonna be tight for the 16:32 off Paddington ... but, ah announcement in the tube "Severe Delays on the Bakerloo Line due to a signalling failure" and I switched

Plan E - Oxford Circus to Lancaster Gate on the Central line, short walk up to Paddington - and that got me to Lancaster Gate ... and which point I gave up on that plan as I'm no longer in sprinting condition to try for the 16:32 off Paddington - added to which my phone was alerting me to GWR reliability issues - "delays between Swindon and Bristol" it said; a pleasant afternoon to sit and relax for a few minutes in Kensington Gardens, and to regroup.

After the 16:32, the next train with a connection to Melksham is the 18:48. Looking online, the 16:32 would have made me very nervous - a person had been hit by a train, the 17:35 local train from Swindon only started from Chippenham. Good operational call in that local train waited and Chippenham for the connection, though it certainly wasn't obvious to me (not that I was there) that this would happen.

I walked up to Paddington to try my luck to get through the disruption. The 17:00 Bristol train was there, loaded, but as it was already a couple of minutes after 5 it was going to be late out. I think this is Plan F. The customer support person was checking all late arrivals on the barrier and initially denied me access - "this train does not call at Melksham" - but allowed me though when I asked if it went to Bath and I would change there. Due into Bath at 18:19, good time to walk to the bus station of the 18:45 to Melksham Town Centre - home for 19:45 versus 20:35 on the train into Melksham.

We left Paddington 13 minutes late "awaiting Driver". We sat at Reading for 10 minutes "awaiting Train Manager". We took 3 minutes at Swindon while a wheelchair ramp was deployed for a passenger joining. We sat for over 6 minutes at Chippenham - the train manager explained (but hard to hear) there were issues on the platform and no platform staff available to help him. And we pulled into Bath Spa just after 18:43. No ticket checks, no coming through to offer customer support - we chatted amongst ourselves, shared what we knew, as we went along.

OK - I know Bath. The train spewed out a whole load of humanity, a mixture of parties out for the evening already oiled up ready, and tired travellers with their baggage. I passed, quickly, to and through the back / level access barrier to avoid the main staircase or lift crush and delays from them, past the back of the station and though the undercroft to the pedestrian crossing where buses leave the bus station. And there sat, having already pulled away from the stand, the 18:45 bus. I gesture to the driver "may I join" and he (rightly, it must be said) gestured back "no". It's repeated incidents like this that have asking - again - why the 273 can't stop in Manvers Street directly opposite the railway station?

And so - a wait in Bath Bus Station. Plan G. The display screens there are segmented by bays, and the lower number bay display is switched off or failed - has been for weeks. 271, 272 and 273 - Bath to Melksham and Devizes all leave from Bay 5, and the timetable there does include up to day times. They are listed separately, so you go though three lists if you're looking for a common destination. A "next buses from this stand" like they have on Dorchester Street would do wonders. But then, it does say "some buses may leave from other stands" and so it proved with the next bus - the 19:15 - which left from Stand 4. Close enough for no-one to miss it, but a screen at the start with "next bus" including those which were running from different stands would help.

Single decker, 38 seats including the tip-ups in the wheelchair bay. All taken and more people joined the bus at the following stops. There were 47 people on that bus as it left Bath and only a couple got off along the way - Standing all the way to Victoria Motors, a few minute from Melksham Station - passed at about 19:57, which is 10 minutes before the following connection off London (arrived 20:07) got there. This 273 got me to the Town Centre rather than home - picked our tea and into the house at - I estimate - around 20:15.

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Conclusion - there is so much that could be done so easily; systems will never be perfect and on days like yesterday where a person was hit by a train at Royal Wootton Bassett, delays and lack of information are understood, everyone does there best and is pragmatic about it, and the other issues are dwarfed into being overlooked. And yet - GWR offering higher fares that most people need to pay, people being turned away from trains when the baboon on the gate-line didn't actually know where Melksham was, and longer term joined up thinking (like buses that actually call for the station, more combines tickets like my travelard, and where they are infrequent at least have them connect could make such a big difference. With that one exception, the staff I saw were doing a professional job but there were too few to do a complete job of customer service. But on the other hand, systems were packed so as organisations looking to get the best financial return, is there any point in encouraging more use by addressing the issues - including helping people get the most appropriate ticket for their journey, and not the one that levers the most income for the industry.

Here in Melksham, information - about cost and opportunities, connections and comfort, frequency and reliability are key - just as they are elsewhere. They cannot be fixed entirely by just Information - "Information at the Station" and with a volunteer helping to share experience and guide nervous newcomers - but the can be hugely improved.

How GWR choose to see our bid will be interesting - whether they put the priority on customer help and information and what we can provide, or whether they see it as something that will boost ridership but will help customers though knowledge find the most appropriate fares rather than buying the headline ones. The concerns do spread in other ways to buses too - complaint on Thursday evening at MTUG that it now costs £12 to make a return but journey to the RUH ... and that simply because people don't know about the Avon Rider ticket at £7. Again - if the buses are rammed, why bother?