London Trains
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I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure each Southern service to Guildford was reciprocated by an SWR service terminating at Effingham Junction.
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SWR timetable refresh - consultation in Autumn 2026
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Happy to be wrong but that wasn’t my recollection for most of the 2010s when I commuted to London Road. Admittedly it may have only been one hour which maxed out at 6 stopping plus two fast Pompey directs.
London Trains
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Seems we're both right - looking at the May 2019 timetable, there seems to be some occasions where a Southern service to Guildford results in an SWR service terminating at Effingham Junction, and other occasions where both services run through to Guildford.
Theoretically it should be easier to path Portsmouth services via Clandon now (even if 2tph Guildford via Epsom is rightfully restored), as there aren't any Southern services that way.
I had forgotten that Southern no longer run through to Guildford. Should make pathing easier. In which case, I’d support routing 2 tph fast services that way. Push the stopper and the Haslemere terminator via Woking. Provides lots of opportunities for Pompey Direct folk to get to Woking, and anyone from Pompey itself still has a direct service via Eastleigh.
Side note, the service via Eastleigh stopped at both Surbiton and Wimbledon pre 2004 outside of the peaks from memory.
There was a period when it was treated as an extension of the Basingstoke stopper, broadly coinciding with when the Reading to Brighton service ran.
London Trains
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Absolutely. Its notable that passenger numbers between Guildford and Epsom have actually increased since 2019/20, despite the fact that the frequency has been halved, and I suspect there is quite a lot of untapped demand (I know for a fact there is some) because of the poor frequency.
Good connections between the Guildford via Epsom services and the London Bridge to Epsom services also need to be restored, which existed until SWR halved the frequency of services via Epsom.
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boiledbeans2
Member
Pompey direct users complaining about 12.450?
Send them the 10.701! It's fine, they have toilets.
No one was moaning about rolling stock. More a comment about it not being possible to run as 15.444 or 16.450. Presumably it’s a 444 service because there isn’t a bunch of spare 450s sat round idle. There are more 444s available than what are needed for the Weymouth’s - they have to be used somewhere.
12x450 is only 10 metres longer than a 10x444. So there’s not much difference apart from the seating capacity. Pompey direct users prefer a 444 over a 450 as it’s less cramped
HamworthyGoods
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Unless the train is very busy; 444s are far less suited to standing in than 450s.
All users prefer a less cramped train. I used to know people who specifically aimed for the shoulder peak 444 service to Alton that used to run.
As I have said to others, the real issue was an expectation set many years ago by senior management that should not have been.
Passengers will make a choice where they can but they much prefer trains which reliably run over which stock is used.
A lot of those who made the original noise no longer commute. It largely is a matter of forum legend now.
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Goldfish62
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Absolutely!