"Pulling the plug" - for however long - on the Melksham (and Westbury, and Beanacre bypasses) does not reduce the amount of freight travelling south-north through Wiltshire. 

It helps make the case for transfer to rail - where that's appropriate, and furthermore it's far less intrusive, less locally controversial, far environmentally better, and far cheaper to put in the infrastructure for rail.   If it can be done BEFORE our population explodes as planned, and with a "metro" frequency rail service in place ahead of time, then our economy and good housing stock will grow with people ready, willing AND ABLE to use rail where appropriate - and that in turn lessens the load and congestion on roads in the area from what it would otherwise be.

 
I am on a suburban train to Porto (so please excuse any typos)  - been to Braga for a couple of hours.  And coming back to the station, I knew there was a train about every hour.  With that frequency, I hadn't bothered to check on my return train simple turning up at the station.  Murphy's law applied, and I walked into an empty Braga station just after the train had left.   Never mind - for an occasional journey, a 58 minute wait wasn't a problem and my laptop, a chance to observe, and a cup of coffee the time soon passed.   No rush to do anything back in Porto.

So - what IS sufficient frequency for a service? 

A service with gaps significnatly longer than an hour only works for a very small proportion of people (and - Melksham note - thats a gap between when trains run and not when they are timetabled but get cancelled as both the 08:02 and 10:02 were this morning).

With a passing loop around Beanacre, an hourly passenger service could be supported - that's double the current service, and running "clock face".  And today I have received a notification that FIRST Great Western Limited is replaced as operator Great Western Railway Limited from 13th December - nationalisation that we have known is coming.  I - hope - that the reliability issues (trains running to timetable) will be sorted out, but I lack any convictions that they will be for that reason.

What the loop WOULD do is double the service and halve the delay when things go wrong.   Actually, it could be rather better - trains out of step including freights would have much shorter (and less obstructive tendencies) waits when something coming the other way is held up - freight trains are REALLY unreliable to the timetabble - often early or late. Futhemore, only 2 trains would be needed to provide the hourly Swindon to Westbury service; without a loop (and without frwight) it would need 3 trains as they have to pass somewhere, and could not do so on the single line.

Currenly trains leave Swindon at 06:03, 08:45, 11:05, 13:14, 15:14, 17:45, 18:44 20:12 and 22:31 and leave Westbury at 07:05, 07:45, 09:45, 12:17, 14:18, 16:23, 18:37 20:06 and 21:16. Just imagine if they left BOTH ends at those time - so that's from Swindon at 06:03, 07:05, 07:45, 08:45, 09:45, 11:05, 12:17, 13:14, 14:18, 15:14, 16:23, 17:45, 18:40, 20:12, 21:16 and 22:31 and Westbury at 06:03, 07:05, 07:45, 08:45, 09:45, 11:05, 12:17, 13:14, 14:18, 15:14, 16:23, 17:45, 18:40, 20:06, 21:16 and 22:31 ... look at all the gaps filled!



Pictured - the HOURLY train from Porto has just arrived in Braga and - oh look - the crowds are flowimg odd. It works!