Morning,Notice that Freightliner trains always stop at Eastleigh heading/returning to Southampton for Driver changes in both directions, do the staff swap shifts here for a full shift or is there Drivers that just do the short Trips to and from the Terminals ?
I believe it is down to a few things, although there are a minority of F/L services that run through Eastleigh non-stop. As explained to me by a F/L driver a few years ago, there's the obvious question of driver's hours. The trains heading north will possibly need the best part of a whole shift. The drivers heading south don't just get to Maritime or Millbroook and finish, there's shunting to do, making up trains, and bringing trains back to Eastleigh. In other words Eastleigh to the docks and back is a whole shift as well.
Then there's the history, that Eastleigh was the area's main freight depot before container trains were even thought of. Moving the driver depots for F/L to the docks, which I guess is at the root of your question, was probably considered too much hassle when most of the drivers still lived within walking distance of Eastleigh station.
What does seem odd to me is that their stops in the passenger platforms are a limiting factor in the passenger service. You may not already know that SN were supposed to be running their hourly Brighton service in a one way loop Fareham -Eastleigh - Parkway - Central - Fareham from Dec 2010, but this was turned down. Most of the problems were to do with existing freight use of the down platforms at Eastleigh, according to the disputes panel reports.
I've wondered before if in the down direction a short 'driver change' platform couldn't be provided immediately north of the station on the down side. This would allow southbound freights to park themselves on the down slow and be passed by passenger services entering either down platform.
On the up side the platform loop could be extended south so that stopping freights do not then have the back of the train on the up main.
