Southampton Disruption

[Mark_re]

Hi all,

Due to a signalling fault at Brockenhurst and a power supply problem at Portsmouth & Southsea, there is extensive disruption tonight on services through Soton Central.

I could see that control were struggling with platform availability when I arrived, with 2, 3 and 4 occupied and 1 working bidirectionally.

I got on the 1746 XC to York, which was sitting in 3. I was surprised that the delayed 1715 XC was let out before mine, despite not arriving until 1748ish. I was doubly surprised as the 1746 is first-stop Winchester, whereas the 1715 also calls at Soton Airport. Would it not have made more sense to release the 1746 on time, than to release it after the slower 1715, thereby delaying a train which would have otherwise been on time?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[swt_passenger]

Hi all,

Due to a signalling fault at Brockenhurst and a power supply problem at Portsmouth & Southsea, there is extensive disruption tonight on services through Soton Central.

I could see that control were struggling with platform availability when I arrived, with 2, 3 and 4 occupied and 1 working bidirectionally.

I got on the 1746 XC to York, which was sitting in 3. I was surprised that the delayed 1715 XC was let out before mine, despite not arriving until 1748ish. I was doubly surprised as the 1746 is first-stop Winchester, whereas the 1715 also calls at Soton Airport. Would it not have made more sense to release the 1746 on time, than to release it after the slower 1715, thereby delaying a train which would have otherwise been on time?

Thanks,

Mark

The 1715 isn't a slower service as such, its overall time between Southampton and Basingstoke is identical (+/- a minute or so) to the 1746. The Southampton Airport stop is apparently missed out by the 1746 to avoid a conflict with a booked freight service leaving Eastleigh, but if there were as many delays as you imply both the passenger and freight timings would be pretty much random anyway, so there'd be very little advantage in getting your train away first.

It would probably have been better to couple the units up and run them in one path, but that would be a bit diffficult to organise with the station seized up...

 

[Matt Taylor]

The 1530 Waterloo-Pompey was fun, we came to a stand a few yards from Rowlands Castle in the late afternoon sun and by the time we got moving again it was dark! And we had the added bonus of stopping on a stretch with a high degree of cant.:roll:

 

[Mark_re]

Ha! Do you have any further information on what happened, apart from the rather opaque automated announcements?

Mark

 

[thefab444]

The problem at Brockenhurst was a points failure on the crossover to the east of the station after the 14:39 Waterloo - Brockenhurst passed over - so they were stuck in the down > platform 1 position.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Evidently a 377 came to a stand just outside Portsmouth & Southsea and connected to this there was a small fire which resulted in the power being switched off for quite some time.