Making vital connections across Somerset and Wiltshire
Our proposal for 2026
We plan to begin not with trains – but with buses.
In fact, much of our investment will be in four ‘charging hubs’. These are key rail stations – provisionally, Worle, Taunton, Castle Cary and Frome – where we believe there is scope for railway land and nearby car parks to be generating renewable energy and storing it in a large grid balancing battery.
We will use these batteries to rapidly charge electric buses that will operate routes linking rail services to nearby settlements. The routes shown here are indicative only – further modelling, forecasting and consultation is needed to plan optimal services.
Our 2021 feasibility study proved that large batteries can be added to surplus electric train sets to operate efficiently on non-electrified mainline routes – a solution known as an BEMU. Alongside our bus operation we will be starting to convert units in this way and securing network approval for their use.
The BEMUs will use the same charging infrastructure as the buses, and to begin with they will operate a regular, clockface timetable on rail corridors with available capacity but limited services. Of course they will connect with our bus services to form a single, integrated network.
Sustained and patient engagement with Local and Combined Authorities has the potential to unlock National Wealth Fund investment at scale for station opening and upgrades promoted by Go-op and jointly owned with public bodies. Somerton, Wootton Bassett and Melksham are all great locations to add capacity, charging opportunities and above all an increase in passenger numbers.
Branch line services (Yeovil via Sparkford, WSR and Shepton Mallet) may also be possible – we’ll work with local authorities to build coalitions for investment.
See below for more details of the connections we want to enable… but note that they may not as yet all take account of the recent change to our plans.
