Great Western Coffee Shop

A poor service being offered this morning between Bristol and Southampton.

The other way the 9.53 Southampton to Bristol starts at Westbury. The 22.55 Southampton to Westbury doesn’t start at all.

This route does seem to have suffered particularly poorly this year, much as Trans Wilts has. I've travelled from Bath to Southampton several times, and invariably trains have either been cancelled or have run very late, which has often meant missed connections (and in one instance then to more cancelled trains further along the line, which in the end I gave up on as it was obvious I wouldn't reach my destination until the time I was due to return). And, as has been said before, it has also meant some intermediate stations being missed out when late trains have run.

With the recent regular cancellations on the Brighton services I wonder if there are problems at Fratton train crew depot which are causing this situation today

Trains are terminating at Southampton today (well - those that run are!) ... and so I did wonder how that meshes with Fratton crew.    Perhaps they don't fancy using the rail replacement services to Southampton to get to work. Early services seemed lost at Bristol though - but perhaps that was because there would be no-one at Southampton to get them back while the Bristol crews has their PNBs?

Totally agree ! The so-called service on this route has declined appallingly of late. I did note a few days ago that of 67 calling trains at Warminster only 20 were "on time" (+/- 2mins). If you were hoping to go West (Bristol, Cardiff - even Westbury !) of Warminster this morning - if you didn't get the 0847 then the next train was 1258 !!

I went from Warminster to Bradford on Avon (and back) the other day - of the 10 or 12 trains I saw (live or on CIS) only 2 were on time. The train I got back (running late) was was displayed as a Southampton service - on boarding, it was announced as a service to "Southampton Central via Southampton Central"..... It was then announced (in a very roundabout fashion) as a Brighton service which would now terminate at Southampton. At Westbury there were a lot of transferring passengers from a London bound HST - these people were thrown into confusion having apparently been told that the Brighton service had been cancelled but had not been told/didn't realise that this (now Southampton) train was their best bet to get to Brighton. They were actually getting on the train then trying to get off again when they discovered that it wasn't going to Brighton. As I was sitting at the end of the coach I got up and told one group of very confused ladies that this was the train they needed to be on.

I am going to Southampton and back on Tuesday...................I await that adventure with some trepidation !!

Yes I was also on a service last week that had that same strange Southampton Central via Southampton Central announcement. It was a train that was due to give a 22 minute connection at Southampton Central for a Brighton service, but it arrived half an hour late and missed it. Most of those getting out there from my carriage were aiming to make this connection, and on getting out I asked the platform staff member if it was worth staying on that train to make the connection at Fareham or Cosham, as I knew the connecting train was going via Eastleigh. He thought about it for a few seconds and said it was, so all those who heard him then got back on, and we did make the connection there. But there hadn't been any announcements on the train, so just general confusion all around.

Further to the comments on the rather strange "To Southampton Central via Southampton Central" announcement above - there is actually one service that can make such an announcement perfectly correctly. The SWR service from Salisbury to Romsey does indeed go to Romsey - via Romsey ! Going the other way it starts at Romsey and then passes through Romsey approximately half way through the journey to Salisbury ....................