Have your say on boosting train station user numbers at Fareham

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Southern Daily Echo:

Residents are being asked for their views about how to get more people using a Hampshire train station.

Hampshire County Council is holding a workshop and wants ideas on how to make it easier to access Fareham railway station. Regular commuters, occasional rail travellers and others with an interest in the station are welcome at the session at Fareham Fire Station at 6pm on Monday.

The council hopes to understand any issues relating to accessing the station and to find out what measures people think would help and encourage them to get to the station by walking, cycling, bus or by car-sharing.

The scheme is part of the My Journey campaign, funded by Government, which aims to get people out of their cars and using more sustainable transport. To register for the workshop call 0845 603 5633 or email myjourney@hants.gov.uk.

[paul7575]

I might have suggested re-opening the line to Gosport, but I expect Hants CC wouldn't go for that any more, after they decided on changing it into a bus route...

Paul

[Network SouthEast]

I think the problems faced with Fareham station are:

Not quite central enough to town centre. It's a 15/20 minute walk. Whilst there are taxis and buses, a free shuttle bus would be (unlikely) but nice.

Services to London are too slow. It makes both time and money sense to drive to Havant or Eastleigh and commute from there.

I don't think either of those issues will be addressed in the consultation!

[Brucey]

Services to London are too slow. It makes both time and money sense to drive to Havant or Eastleigh and commute from there.

I agree.  You get a choice of either:
a. A direct Southern service, via. Horsham
b. A direct South West Trains service, via. Eastleigh and Basingstoke
c. Taking a service to Havant and changing for a South West Trains service via Guildford

Option b is the fastest, but at 1hr 40mins minimum, it is often faster and more comfortable to drive especially if your destination is not in Central London.

As for fares, ^51.80 for an anytime day return or ^57.20 for an anytime return is also more expensive than driving.  Driving costs about half that, although parking in London is extra.

[inspector_blakey]

I don't really see the point of this: it's not like Fareham is struggling for users, with over 1.5 million in 2010/2011. This is more than the (argualbly much better-served) Fratton and almost twice as many users as Cosham. It's also, interestingly, slightly more users than Eastleigh.

Seems odd that the article (at least in the way I read it) is almost implying that there is a shortage of users at Fareham which there clearly isn't.