Following the changes to Service 80 which came in at the beginning of August, a number of residents have noticed a lot of time gaps in the timetable, which is over three hours in some cases. On Saturday mornings, passengers travelling to Marlborough Saturday market need to catch an early bus from the Landmark stop at 08:10 to get to Marlborough for 08:30, as the next service to Marlborough is not until 11:37. Return timings from Marlborough are at 10:07 or 13:52. Passengers with concessionary passes can use the buses at any time on a Saturday.

We have now had details of the new Salisbury Reds X5 bus service. This starts on Monday 2nd September and the new timetable will be available on their website in the next week and paper copies will be available from the Thamesdown office in Fleming Way, Swindon. There will be a new early service into Swindon which will leave Pewsey at 06:14, Marlborough at 06:33, Chiseldon main road stop 06:46, Swindon Bus Station 07:03. This may be useful to residents who need to catch an early train and may be cheaper than paying car parking charges in Swindon.

This is to enable the bus to travel from the Pewsey bus depot to Swindon where it will then become the Service 680 school bus service carrying children to St John’s School in Marlborough. Parents will need to purchase a termly pass from the website https://passes.gosouthcoast.co.uk/ or have the correct change for a child return ticket at £5.50. These details were on a letter sent out by St John’s School on 12 July 2019.

The returning bus is an X5 which will call in at St John’s School at 15:45 then Marlborough High Street at 15:55 and is routed via the back road into Chiseldon (as it used to do), arriving in Chiseldon at 16:17 and back into Swindon at 16:38.

Another important change is that the X5 will now go into the Great Western Hospital, picking up passengers from Stand D, on most services at 54 minutes past the hour. The only service coming into the village is the 18:30 from Swindon, all other services will drop passengers off on the main road.

Most X5 bus services will leave the Bus Station at 40 minutes past the hour, a change from the current timetable of 25 minutes past the hour. But do check the timetable as this rule does not apply to all services.

The road through Hodson will be closed for two weeks from 15-27 September to allow for a survey of the embankment.

David Hill