Sunday Service from Dean and Mottisfont/Dunbridge

[whole diary]

[teamsaint]

On Sunday, the  Salisbury /Romsey SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) service   seems to be hourly, as it is on weekdays. However, for some reason  the service only calls every two hours at Dean and Dunbridge.

I was wondering if there is any practical reason why this is ? the service calls at all the other stops, including Redbridge and Millbrook. If there is a time issue, you might think it might make sense to call at one or both of Dean and Dunbridge, ( where there is no other public transport on Sunday) and perhaps miss out Millbrook, which is a stones throw from Southampton Central, and where there are other public transport options.

Which would mean, most importantly, it would be easier for me to get to the football when it gets moved to Sunday.
Be interested in thoughts.

 Oh , and  a secondary, any good  reason why I wasn't offered the new(ish) weekend  off peak super save at Romsey TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine)  yesterday ?I'm 60p out of pocket !!

 

[grahame]

On Sunday, the  Salisbury /Romsey SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) service   seems to be hourly, as it is on weekdays. However, for some reason  the service only calls every two hours at Dean and Dunbridge.

I was wondering if there is any practical reason why this is ? the service calls at all the other stops, including Redbridge and Millbrook. If there is a time issue, you might think it might make sense to call at one or both of Dean and Dunbridge, ( where there is no other public transport on Sunday) and perhaps miss out Millbrook, which is a stones throw from Southampton Central, and where there are other public transport options.

Which would mean, most importantly, it would be easier for me to get to the football when it gets moved to Sunday.
Be interested in thoughts.

The SWR consultation for 2019 is only asking about Monday to Friday, but it could be an idea to make your suggestion / ask your question and make a suggestion there.

Question noted ... I'll ask the Three Rivers team next time I see them;   TransWilts and Three Rivers are looking at much more joined up services from the Southampton area to Swindon via Salisbury and Westbury, so the question of stopping patterns south of Salisbury is an interesting one for me.

Oh , and  a secondary, any good  reason why I wasn't offered the new(ish) weekend  off peak super save at Romsey TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine)  yesterday ?I'm 60p out of pocket !!

If it's an older TVM, it's said to only be programmed to have two sets of front panel fares;  same problem of not offering what most people would consider the appropriate tickets at times.   Melksham -> London offers peak returns on the 07:19 and 07:49 then switches to off peak ... £13 more than super off peak.  This is arguable on a Monday to Friday, where the 19:00 back from London is off peak (but not super).  On Saturday and Sunday, when all trains are super off peak, the front panel really should offer that ticket bearing in mind that the huber of people nit returning until 19:00 on the Monday is limited.

Is the weekend ticket at Romsey findable via the back menus?   Does the machine give you details of the validity? That latter another problem - there's a tendency for neither off peak nor super off peak to give you a full description of services they're available on - just tell you "not valid on certain trains" or words to that effect.

 
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[teamsaint]

Thanks . I'll definitely put my point about Sunday services to the consultation. It looks ( to my amateur eyes) as if the weekday service is being tweaked to make departure times past each hour more consistent.

One point I will also make to the  consultation is about connectivity with the hourly Brighton service at Central.
It looks as though the new timetable will allow a better connection for the 07.32. However, looking from Salisbury direction, a good  connection between the Salisbury to Romsey service and the Brighton service each hour would make sense for those travelling from Salisbury or further north.

Re the TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine), I'll have to look more closely next time to see what the machine tells me. AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know), the super off peak only applies after 11.00 at weekends, which may be why the machine can't cope.

One other  thing to mention round here:
St Denys.  Because there are four platforms, It would be so useful to have an information board at entrance to the station , showing which platform to go to. At the moment , you have to go to the platform and hope you have picked the right one, certainly from the Adelaide Road side.

[Western Pathfinder]

On Sunday, the  Salisbury /Romsey SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) service   seems to be hourly, as it is on weekdays. However, for some reason  the service only calls every two hours at Dean and Dunbridge.

I was wondering if there is any practical reason why this is ? the service calls at all the other stops, including Redbridge and Millbrook. If there is a time issue, you might think it might make sense to call at one or both of Dean and Dunbridge, ( where there is no other public transport on Sunday) and perhaps miss out Millbrook, which is a stones throw from Southampton Central, and where there are other public transport options.

Which would mean, most importantly, it would be easier for me to get to the football when it gets moved to Sunday.
Be interested in thoughts.

The SWR consultation for 2019 is only asking about Monday to Friday, but it could be an idea to make your suggestion / ask your question and make a suggestion there.

Question noted ... I'll ask the Three Rivers team next time I see them;   TransWilts and Three Rivers are looking at much more joined up services from the Southampton area to Swindon via Salisbury and Westbury, so the question of stopping patterns south of Salisbury is an interesting one for me.

Oh , and  a secondary, any good  reason why I wasn't offered the new(ish) weekend  off peak super save at Romsey TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine)  yesterday ?I'm 60p out of pocket !!

If it's an older TVM, it's said to only be programmed to have two sets of front panel fares;  same problem of not offering what most people would consider the appropriate tickets at times.   Melksham -> London offers peak returns on the 07:19 and 07:49 then switches to off peak ... £13 more than super off peak.  This is arguable on a Monday to Friday, where the 19:00 back from London is off peak (but not super).  On Saturday and Sunday, when all trains are super off peak, the front panel really should offer that ticket bearing in mind that the huber of people nit returning until 19:00 on the Monday is limited.

Is the weekend ticket at Romsey findable via the back menus?   Does the machine give you details of the validity? That latter another problem - there's a tendency for neither off peak nor super off peak to give you a full description of services they're available on - just tell you "not valid on certain trains" or words to that effect.

 

Good Moaning ,a little visit from Officer Crabtree in the above perhaps?
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