www.realtimetrains.co.uk
It used to be a regular route for a very early ECS from Eastleigh via Botley, Fareham, Havant to Guildford to form the daily Newcastle service with a corresponding return in the evening. I think these still ran daily as ECS all the way to Reading up until last December. But I believe they haven’t run in public service since then, this week theres an ECS towards Reading MWF only, but no down service..
I've seen XC weekend diversions over the Portsmouth Direct at a weekend within the last few months, though I can't put dates to that.
If so, that presumably means XC will just terminate everything at Reading whenever the route between there and Southampton is closed. Post privatisation XC have dropped Brighton, Guildford, and Poole off their route map, now they seem to be losing interest in everywhere south of Reading.
Although there is a regular ECS path on Mondays (excepting public holidays) which runs from Eastleigh to Reading via Fareham and Guildford, presumably to maintain driver knowledge for diversionary use, as has been the case in engineering works and just today?
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
Yes that is the one I saw that currently runs one way northbound MWF. It was cancelled today. There‘s no southbound equivalent however. But at the end of the latest train service specification, (dated Oct 2023 onwards), there’s a short section describing a few diversionary route learners that are required to run once or twice a week, they’re at various places all over the country except for the area South of Reading. There‘s also apparent route learners running via Laverstock annd Andover in one direction northbound only Tuesday & Thursday from June, but they’re not listed in the service spec either. Running one way isn’t that unusual though, there have been timetables in recent years where they’ve only run southbound via Laverstock.Although there is a regular ECS path on Mondays (excepting public holidays) which runs from Eastleigh to Reading via Fareham and Guildford, presumably to maintain driver knowledge for diversionary use, as has been the case in engineering works and just today?
Realtime Trains | 5E79 0446 Eastleigh Trsmd to Reading | 29/04/2024
Real-time train running information for 5E79 0446 departure from Eastleigh Trsmd to Reading on 29/04/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
There is also the 5O06 0735 Eastleigh Trsmd to Reading service which runs via Laverstock on Sunday mornings when the Laverstock area is open.
