A group of adults with learning difficulties from Melksham’s Shine Friendship Café has spent the day playing bingo whilst enjoying the Wiltshire countryside from their train seat thanks to TransWilts Community Rail Partnership (CRP).

Melksham’s Shine Friendship Café is a weekly social space for adults with learning difficulties and their support workers, offering fun activities such as bingo, karaoke and games, as well as quiet sessions.

On Wednesday 22 April, fifteen adults, aided by support workers and volunteers, boarded the train at Melksham Station for a fun tour of their local area. Along the way they played games of bingo, led by Great Western Railway conductor, Henry-Arthur Freeman. The group travelled to Swindon before heading to Westbury and then back to Melksham.

Sophie Martin, TransWilts CRP manager, said: “Having fun on the train is a great way to boost people’s confidence in travelling this way again. By helping our local communities access Wiltshire’s railway lines, we can help take the worries away from travelling and hopefully next time they need to head somewhere, they might look at whether they could do it by train again.”

Carolyn Fernandes, centre manager for the café, said: “It was a lovely day, very inclusive and everyone very much enjoyed the experience. They all enjoy bingo at Shine and so quickly got into the game, even helping Henry call the numbers. A couple of our members are transport enthusiasts and so were also very chuffed to be able to have a behind-the-scenes tour of the train.

“Everyone was very keen to take part in the fun and all the train staff were very pleasant and engaging. Now having been on the train in such a fun way, I think if any of the group needed to get another train for any reason it will have lessened their anxiety about travel in the future.” 

Keep up to date with future news, projects and events from TransWilts CRP via their website.