for Melksham's public transport users

Melksham Rail User Group

For 2019, we have had an exciting program of meetings and events (still "Santa Special" to come!) ... with a new longer platform, longer trains and engineering works completed we are set for the service use to grow again - for the benefit of Melksham residents, businesses and visitors. 2019 train departures from Melksham are available [[here]]

For 2020, we'll have a significantly amended timetable - details in December 2019, and a program to continue the success of the line and the group for a further year. First 2020 public meeting - 22nd January 2020, a "Fares Special". 19:30, United Reform Church just off the Market Place (note new venue - as the group grows, we can take advantage of the larger room there!). Following dates for your diary - 18th March, 20th May, 22nd July, 16th September and 18th November - and no doubt more to be added!

About the station and the group

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)

For 2019, we have an exciting program of meetings and events ... with a new longer platform, longer trains and engineering works completed, we are set for the service use to grow again - for the benefit of Melksham residents, businesses and visitors.

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.