Ridgeway Bell – April 2018
Both of the bus companies in the Swindon area, Thamesdown Swindon Bus Company and Stagecoach West, are making substantial investment in bus services. Thamesdown Bus Co have increased the frequency of their services. We need more passengers to use the Service 81 which runs between Chiseldon and Wroughton, or it is likely that this will be left with a Service 80 which runs every two hours.
Chiseldon showed its Dunkirk spirit over the period when we were hit by the “Beast from the East” in helping out the people who were stuck overnight in the snow on the A346. The Parish Council spoke to Stagecoach West to get the bus service running as soon as it could and we had a full bus service on the 80, 81 and X5 by Monday morning. Thank you to the farmers who helped to clear the back road and A346.
Over Easter from Good Friday to Easter Monday there will be a lot of Network Rail work taking place in the Bristol area, with most trains replaced by buses. The railway line from Westbury to Theale (including Pewsey, Bedwyn, Hungerford and Newbury) will be closed for four-day periods, Monday-Thursday on a number of weeks up until 22nd November. Details of these closures can be found on www.GWR.com. No trains will run on the first four days of the week. These will be replaced by buses to Swindon from Pewsey and Bedwyn and Hungerford buses to Newbury, then change to another bus to Didcot Parkway. This is to enable the line to be changed over for electric trains.
We are now in the final phase of the roadworks at Junction 16 of the M4 with substantial delays causing queuing on the M4.