Fratton to Gatwick 1st Sept

[Ianmel1969]

With a strike happening on this day I'm wondering if my only option would be to get to Guildford on SWT and then the FGW Reading to Gatwick service. How busy would the FGW train likely be on a strike day (around 4pm). Is it just a 3 car train?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[gray1404]

If you wanted to avoid any problems on the trains to do with strikes, you could take National Express coaches. They run direct services from Portsmouth to Gatwick Airport and the journey is about 1 hour 45 minutes.

 

[Iggy12a]

I travel to Gatwick 3 times a week from Portsmouth.
During the RMT strike days, the effect is minimal. If there are only Portsmouth to Brighton trains running, then you just have to change at Barnham, Hove or Brighton, and it takes about an extra 30 minutes.
If there are no Southern trains at all because ASLEF are on strike, then the staff in the ticket office at PMS have told me to use my "via Barnham" ticket via Guildford. Although this is not listed on the Southern website as being one of the valid alternative acceptances, it seems that common sense has prevailed, and I have had no problems in using SWT to Guildford and GWR to Gatwick, with a via Barnham ticket.