Extra Bournemouth to Southampton trains today

[nw1]

Noticed these from the departure board at Totton and checked on traintimes.org.uk. There appeared to be four additional Bournemouth to Southampton trains at 1630 to 1930 hourly today, stopping at principal stations, and at least one non-stop return working (1730 from Southampton).

What were these? They are not shown in the timetable at all - even as summer-only trains. Were they just relief trains put on because the weather was quite good and the morning down trains were very full (doesn't sound like the privatised railway, mind - though probably something BR would have done)? Didn't see any notice about them at stations either.

 

[Crossover]

They appear on RTT (such as this 17:30 fast from Soton, that you mention) and are in under STP (Short Term Planning) and 1Zxx reporting codes. Why they were added, I'm not sure, but they definitely ran

 

[DaveHarries]

Speaking of Southampton Central: when I was down there on Wednesday (IIRC) last week I think there may have been a signalling hash-up. I noted that trains heading towards St. Denys & Eastleigh were leaving on the line normally used by arriving trains from that direction while trains arriving from the Eastleigh & St. Denys direction were using the line normally used by trains departing in that direction!

Dave

 

[swt_passenger]

There was a significant period of 'right hand' running on Thursday last week, I think it was after the problems reported here: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87973

 

[Eagle]

Why they were added, I'm not sure, but they definitely ran

Summer weekend extras, simple as.

 

[nw1]

There was a significant period of 'right hand' running on Thursday last week, I think it was after the problems reported here: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87973

The 11.13 to Victoria ran right hand out of Southampton last Thursday, with a down XC passing it in the Northam area also running right hand. I thought it was simply because the 11.02 FGW to Portsmouth was late and it immediately followed that one, but maybe not by the sound of things.

 

[swt_passenger]

It's certainly not unheard of to do that, or have two arrivals or departures running together, but for long periods on Thursday they were running all trains on the 'right hand' lines. It was mentioned in the SWT Yahoo group at the time.

It isn't the first time this year that they've done this, I saw it happening for a few hours some months ago, so I'd assume whatever the defect was it meant they were unable to set a normal route in one of the directions, and the quick solution was to run both ways using the bidirectional capability.

 

[lj9090]

They're running again this weekend.

Odd they're not announced anywhere, used the trains last Sunday aswell and didn't even notice they'd been added.

 

[nw1]

They're running again this weekend.

Odd they're not announced anywhere, used the trains last Sunday aswell and didn't even notice they'd been added.

You think they'd put them in the timetable!

I believe (was up in Cheshire so don't know) that yesterday was a poor day with rain much of the time in the south, in contrast to last Sunday, so can't be weather-dependent. They should therefore put them in the timetable with a date qualifier July and August only, or whatever.

 

[swt_passenger]

You think they'd put them in the timetable!

I believe (was up in Cheshire so don't know) that yesterday was a poor day with rain much of the time in the south, in contrast to last Sunday, so can't be weather-dependent. They should therefore put them in the timetable with a date qualifier July and August only, or whatever.

You're assuming they had already decided to run them when the timetable was in preparation. What if the decision was only made a couple of weekends ago?

 

[embers25]

You think they'd put them in the timetable!

I believe (was up in Cheshire so don't know) that yesterday was a poor day with rain much of the time in the south, in contrast to last Sunday, so can't be weather-dependent. They should therefore put them in the timetable with a date qualifier July and August only, or whatever.

It was glorious in Bournemouth until 4pm. I was there for the 1630 additional but unfortunately it had broken down in Plat 2. The 1626 AXC arrival was in P3 and occupied it until 1640. Then instead of letting in the 1639 to Weymouth they let in the front 5 of the 1650 to Waterloo and made them the 1630. That would've meant the 1650 being 5 coaches which the huge crowd waiting would not have appreciated. Given it was now 1650 and the 1650 was stuck outside, common sense prevailed and the 1630 was canx and the 1650 was restored to 10 coaches. However it did not stop extra at Christchurch and Totton to replace the 1630 which was a bit bad and it was full with standing even at 10 coaches.
It was chaos on Bournemouth and did appear disorganised and the guard certainly kept giving out wrong information on the platform and yelling for people to stand behind the yellow line whilst at the same time announcing the 1630 as boarding on that very platform hence people being in front of the yellow line! However it turns out the platform staff recommended canx the 1630 and just running the 1650 but control overrode them so they had to spend 15 mins arguing with control over how stupid they were being. Net result 1630 canx, 1650 8 late and 1639 20+ late. Canx unavoidable really but delays very avoidable but for the usual SWT control stupidity. Why they can't just listen to the staff on the ground I'll never know!

 

[lj9090]

However it did not stop extra at Christchurch and Totton to replace the 1630 which was a bit bad it was full with standing even at 10 coaches.

Plenty of seats in coach 3! Guess no-one was prepared to move down a bit, the platform was a little quieter up at the london end past the subway.

I'd imagine the priority was to get the 1650 back on time, stopping at CHR and TTN would delay it even further and the 1706 would be at those stations soon, anyway.

 

[embers25]

Plenty of seats in coach 3! Guess no-one was prepared to move down a bit, the platform was a little quieter up at the london end past the subway.

I'd imagine the priority was to get the 1650 back on time, stopping at CHR and TTN would delay it even further and the 1706 would be at those stations soon, anyway.

Very true but they should at least have said about not stopping on board given the platform announcements were at best confused. I was in coach 5 and people were coming at us from both directions claiming it was full by Soton Parkway and so we had 15 standing in coach.

I chose coach 5 as the staff were on radios half way down theplatform outside it and so it helped with learning what was going on. One thing that does puzzle me is that, unlike at Salisbury where joins/splits are done first then the doors are open, at Bournemouth they open the doors then join the open again (except last night lol) which means much slower splits and so you always seem to leave late.

Also platform stops heading back to London were very slow so despite spirited driving no time was made up. The trolley was also out of all water and juice by the time he reached us for the first time having only boarded at Bournemouth with a full load.
Credit to SWT for at least trying to run extras but some advertising, even on the day so arriving passengers knew there were extra trains home that night would've been good.

 

[lj9090]

One thing that does puzzle me is that, unlike at Salisbury where joins/splits are done first then the doors are open, at Bournemouth they open the doors then join the open again (except last night lol) which means much slower splits and so you always seem to leave late.

Odd, I've never seen them do it that way. I've always had to wait on the platform till the back half turns up from Weymouth.

Credit to SWT for at least trying to run extras but some advertising, even on the day so arriving passengers knew there were extra trains home that night would've been good.

Well, there's the thing, they're only going as far as Southampton, so not all that useful for anyone on a longer trip. I suppose they're hoping to get some locals on these trains freeing up the xx50's for longer journeys.
Shame it's not more permanent, it fills in quite a large gap in the timetable - they're so bunched up normally it's rather close to being just 1tph in anything worth catching.

 

[1e10]

One thing that does puzzle me is that, unlike at Salisbury where joins/splits are done first then the doors are open, at Bournemouth they open the doors then join the open again (except last night lol) which means much slower splits and so you always seem to leave late.

I've seen this done at Bristol Temple Meads and Weymouth. I'm not sure why, it can cause some confusion. I witnessed a woman put her kids on the train at BRI and then leave to go get some coffee. She thought she had plenty of time before departure and so was shocked when she came back to the see the train moving up the platform. She started banging on the window but stopped shortly after a member of platform staff explained all to her. During all of this her kids seemed very calm and relaxed about the the situation.

 

[embers25]

I've seen this done at Bristol Temple Meads and Weymouth. I'm not sure why, it can cause some confusion. I witnessed a woman put her kids on the train at BRI and then leave to go get some coffee. She thought she had plenty of time before departure and so was shocked when she came back to the see the train moving up the platform. She started banging on the window but stopped shortly after a member of platform staff explained all to her. During all of this her kids seemed very calm and relaxed about the the situation.

Salisbury always seems to work very well and ensures fast joins/splits but the 3 times I've been to Bournemouth this month (1650 Sunday excepted) they've opted for the other split method and each time it has delayed the train. Like Salisbury, when joining they did allow boarding before the back bit arrived but still the double door openings. Each time confusion ensued. Also no matter how many times the guard announces we were always delayed awaiting people to move from one bit to the other which again rarely happens at Salisbury.

 

[nw1]

You're assuming they had already decided to run them when the timetable was in preparation. What if the decision was only made a couple of weekends ago?

True - maybe it's something to do with the last 6 summers being poor and this one being half-decent which has generated the extra traffic, compared to the last few years, leading to a last-minute addition of the extra trains. Even still, I'd echo the comments about advertising it on stations. First I knew of it was seeing an unscheduled train appear on the Totton information displays then looking it up on traintimes.org.uk to confirm its existence!