Christmas And New Year Bus Services
If you are using the bus services over the festive season, it is worth checking both Stagecoach West and Sailsbury Reds website. The last buses into the Chiseldon area on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve will be the X5 18:30 service, which does come around the top part of Chiseldon Village and terminates at Pewsey. Wiltshire Council found this service and this year have decided to run it as it connects with rail services at Swindon.
Swindon Borough Council with McArther Glen are running a park and ride service on Saturdays and Sundays from the Wroughton Park and Ride off Croft Road and Pipers Way to the Outlet Village, via Wichelstowe. The service starts a 9am, running every 20 minutes with the last bus back from the Outlet Village at 19:20. The charge is £2 per car. The service will run up until 30th December 2018, so will be available for those wishing to go to the post-Christmas sales. The car parks in the Rodbourne area are being over-subscribed. It is possible to catch buses into the main part of Swindon from the Outlet Village.
The funds are in place for the reshaping of Junction 15 of the M4 and this work is scheduled to go head at some stage in 2019. We are eagerly awaiting a date for this to take place and when it happens there will be considerable delay in getting across Junction 15, with a number of alternative routes planned to other M4 Junctions.
If you intend to use railway services to get away for the festive season, please plan ahead, as there are a number of rail improvement schemes taking place, with Network Rail undertaking £148m worth of work over the Christmas period.
The normal annual fare rise for the railways will take place on 2nd January 2019 with an increase of 3.1% but after all the timetable problems over the past year, passenger groups are asking for this rise to be cancelled.
Cllr David Hill – Transport Representative – Chiseldon Parish Council