Guildford to Andover/Winchester Rail Replacement Bus

[Nicholas Lewis]

In looking at what trains were going to Guildford next Sunday 28/11 in RTT noticed that there is a rail replacement bus service to Andover/Winchester from Guildford on this day. Looking into it they are from Woking to Andover/Winchester Guildford, Basingstoke, Whitchurch, Overton and Andover and there is also a Winchester RRB service via Basingstoke.

Im guessing this is a Woking and Basingtoke foul possession which seems highly unusual if thats correct so whats it for?

Also with such extended bus distances to be operated why run via Guildford as this just extends the journey time by at least 30mins, and thats if the traffic doesn't get snarled up with Xmas shoppers, rather than run direct to Basingstoke via M3 or is this a standard RRB plan?

All in all though we aren't encouraging people to use the trains with these sort of extended journey times or is that plan by SWR to dissuade people from travelling.

 

[swt_passenger]

Guildford to Winchester via Alton has a reasonably good road connection, the A31. I‘m pretty sure these are all pretty standard bustitution routes for those stations when the Basingstoke - Woking is closed. Trains to Southampton and Weymouth would go via Guildford and Havant.

 

[JonathanH]

The service tends to terminate at Weybridge when Woking is shut which it is on this day. Guildford is further west and has better passenger facilities for connections to Basingstoke, Winchester etc.

As noted, there are Andover to Woking buses but there aren't trains from Woking to London.

The connections to London from Farnborough and Woking are at Weybridge so another aspect of running buses from Guildford to certain destinations is spreading the load.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

The service tends to terminate at Weybridge when Woking is shut which it is on this day. Guildford is further west and has better passenger facilities for connections to Basingstoke, Winchester etc.

OK not my area so thanks for clarity.

Seems unusual though to have both the whole of Woking and Basingstoke Jcns closed for the whole day and never recollect that happening before when I was on that side in the early 2000's.

 

[30907]

OK not my area so thanks for clarity.

Seems unusual though to have both the whole of Woking and Basingstoke Jcns closed for the whole day and never recollect that happening before when I was on that side in the early 2000's.

NR seem increasingly to be coordinating major jobs (ISTR one is the junction at BSK) and it has happened on several Sundays/weekends lately.

 

[Kite159]

Good luck if you plan to use those buses. Twice recently I've had the "pleasure" of Guildford rail replacement buses where if the connecting train is a few minutes late from Waterloo the bus goes regardless (rather than waiting for any passengers from the Portsmouth train). Add on some of the fast buses simply not running.

It's somewhere you need to keep you ears peeled for where the Andover bus ends up, as where there are signs they do get ignored.

(As for the Andover stopper the worse part is roadworks on a railway bridge in the Worthing area of Basingstoke which adds around 5 minutes to the journey time due to a detour, which can make the difference between making the connection at Andover and the train pulling out just as the bus pulls up.