From this morning
Alterations to services between Romsey and Fareham
Due to urgent repairs to a tunnel between Romsey and Fareham fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running through these stations will be diverted via Eastleigh. Southampton Central will not be served. Disruption is expected until 14:30 21/03.
Customer Advice
Owing to flooding in the tunnel adjacent to Southampton Central railway station fewer trains are able to traverse that section of line. As a result Great Western Railway train services between Portsmouth Harbour and Salisbury / Bristol Temple Meads / Cardiff Central, in both directions, will be unable to serve Southampton Central but will be diverted via an alternative route and will call additionally at Chandlers Ford and Eastleigh stations.
Any customers on these GWR▸ services requiring Southampton Central should change at Eastleigh for alternative services forward. Similarly, any customers at Southampton Central requiring these GWR services will need to travel on alternative services to Eastleigh.
Southern and South Western Railway services in the general area will accept GWR ticket holders on their services.
It is intended that the following GWR services will operate as scheduled:-
05:17 Gloucester to Southampton Central
08:23 Southampton Central to Great Malvern
11:11 Westbury to Southampton Central
12:27 Southampton Central to Great Malvern
17:41 Cheltenham Spa to Southampton Central
21:20 Southampton Central to Westbury
Last Updated:21/03/2019 05:41
From Salisbury to Southampton, there are normally 2 trains per hours - GWR running from Cardiff to Portsmouth with an intermediate call at Romsey, and
SWR» from Salisbury with intermediate calls at Dean, Mottisfornt Dunbridge, Romsey, Redbridge and Millbrook. Then there are the theee extra above. Note that that 05:17 from Gloucester and 17:41 from Cheltenham Spa both run via the TransWilts.
The 05:17 from Gloucester arrives into Southampton at 08:09 and is a busy train. The 11:11 from Westbury connects with a. train off Plymouth and is remarkably busy. The 21:20 off Southampton is the last train of the day (via a connection at Westbury) to stations Trowbridge to Bristol - though there is a through service just 10 minutes earlier from Southampton, and a later Westbury terminator. All three services call at Dilton Marsh in both directions, providing a significant part of that station's services.
There is a very strong case for merging these services south of Westbury with the TransWilts Swindon to Westbury service and the Three Rivers Salisbury via Southampton Central and onwards via the airport and Eastleigh service, resulting in
an hourly Swindon via Southampton Central service. It will also "mop up" services like the 15:11 and 17:11 Westbury to Warminster which on current form are pretty well empty, but coming from Swindon and carrying on to Southampton would be very popular trains.
Current line capacity issues north of Trowbridge / the need for freight paths could realistically mean that the number of extra trains per day, each way, north of Westbury would be just 13 (currently 9) with a two hour frequency in the middle of the day and evening, and shorter intervals, as some are at present, in the peaks.
P.S. Come December, I expect the connection up from Plymouth into the 11:11 to arrive earlier in Westbury, allowing passengers to connect into the Portsmouth train a few minutes earlier. With that 5 carriages long, no longer the need for a congestion-buster any more, at least for a year or two.
