GWR Brighton services axed from May timetable change

[mrcheek]

You'd be very surprised - it's regularly full and standing from the Gloucester/Bristol end and right the way through. A handy link for the elderly to save them trekking across London.

I personally would rather see one of the Weymouths cancelled.

Weymouth has services every two hours, with no alternative. Would be daft to reduce that even further

 

[BayPaul]

A handy link for the elderly to save them trekking across London.

But they still won't need to go via London. There is an hourly service from Bristol to Portsmouth, with a number of opportunities for same platform changes onto the equally regular Southern services along the coast.

 

[Bishopstone]

But they still won't need to go via London. There is an hourly service from Bristol to Portsmouth, with a number of opportunities for same platform changes onto the equally regular Southern services along the coast.

With a second change required for destinations east of Barnham, albeit same platform again.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

With a second change required for destinations east of Barnham, albeit same platform again.

That is in the current temporary Southern timetable that runs at the moment, the GWR changes happen in May by which time Southern are planning to revert to the previous direct Southampton to Brighton service.

 

[BayPaul]

With a second change required for destinations east of Barnham, albeit same platform again.

At present. If the coastway timetable goes back to pre-covid, then presumably Brighton - Southampton and Brighton - Portsmouth semi-fast services will return at some point

 

[geoffk]

Maybe DfT see it as one of the many forthcoming ways of reducing diesel miles on electrified routes. Look out for more.

If not Brighton, where will the GWR service terminate instead - Southampton or Portsmouth? There's no SN Southampton - Brighton service at the moment, just to Littlehampton.

 

[Dr Hoo]

You'd be very surprised - it's regularly full and standing from the Gloucester/Bristol end and right the way through. A handy link for the elderly to save them trekking across London.

It can't do much for the 'ambience' to be wedged in a packed DMU all the way from Gloucester to Brighton even if someone has kindly given up their seat for an elderly fellow traveller.

 

[TheBigD]

Maybe DfT see it as one of the many forthcoming ways of reducing diesel miles on electrified routes. Look out for more.

Whilst not in Southern/GWR land, could we see things like XC cut back to Cambridge instead of Stansted Airport with that but of the service covered by GA services?

 

[Graham H]

Not seen it mentioned but the early morning service which effectively gets the unit to Brighton serves a number of the smaller stations between Portsmouth and Brighton and has been a very useful work/school trip and a most unusual way to travel

 

[swt_passenger]

Not seen it mentioned but the early morning service which effectively gets the unit to Brighton serves a number of the smaller stations between Portsmouth and Brighton and has been a very useful work/school trip and a most unusual way to travel

But surely not GWR’s problem. SN should be providing both calls and capacity.

If not Brighton, where will the GWR service terminate instead - Southampton or Portsmouth? There's no SN Southampton - Brighton service at the moment, just to Littlehampton.

If we’re looking at the only weekday eastbound service, the one that starts 1041 from Great Malvern, then it terminates at Warminster from May 16th:
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C38335/2022-05-16/detailed

 

[ValleyLines142]

It can't do much for the 'ambience' to be wedged in a packed DMU all the way from Gloucester to Brighton even if someone has kindly given up their seat for an elderly fellow traveller.

Exactly. Most of the time it's a 3-car 158, although one day last week it was a 2-car 165 with no tables and 3+2 seating - absolutely dreadful.

 

[Graham H]

But surely not GWR’s problem. SN should be providing both calls and capacity.


If we’re looking at the only weekday eastbound service, the one that starts 1041 from Great Malvern, then it terminates at Warminster from May 16th:
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C38335/2022-05-16/detailed

And they will. As far as I recall, the GW service actually took a path from Southern years ago (10 or more) in return for serving the smaller stations that the original path used to stop at rather than running ecs. I was more commenting on the unusual opportunity to travel from some of the smaller coastway services using a GWR 158 or now a 166

 

[JohnRegular]

I suspect a regular (even 1tp2h) Bristol-Brighton service would be well patronised, including a decent number of end-to-end journies, and if it existed now I doubt anyone would want to see it axed. But we don't live in that world, and GWR needs every last carriage it can get working on its core routes. A single same-platform change is perfectly acceptable really.

 

[woolos]

Brighton will still have 2 cross county route to the rest of the the county .Peterborough and Bedford.

 

[Kite159]

Brighton will still have 2 cross county route to the rest of the the county .Peterborough and Bedford.

Don't you mean Cambridge instead of Peterborough?

Unless Thameslink are changing things so it's Brighton to Peterborough & Horsham to Cambridge?

 

[JonathanH]

Brighton will still have 2 cross county route to the rest of the the county .Peterborough and Bedford.

...and excellent connections at Farringdon and St Pancras to many other destinations.

 

[WesternLancer]

Brighton will still have 2 cross county route to the rest of the the county .Peterborough and Bedford.

Tickets priced 'via London' of course

 

[BayPaul]

Tickets priced 'via London' of course

To be fair, any journey from Brighton to a destination on the MML, ECML or destinations further east that did not go via London would be very long and slow.

 

[WesternLancer]

To be fair, any journey from Brighton to a destination on the MML, ECML or destinations further east that did not go via London would be very long and slow.

Indeed!

 

[Bald Rick]

You'd be very surprised - it's regularly full and standing from the Gloucester/Bristol end and right the way through.

Are you suggesting full and standing from the Bristol end, all of whom are passengers for Brighton? Ie few people alight at any of the intermediate stations, and by extension there is no room for anyone to board at them either?

 

[ValleyLines142]

Are you suggesting full and standing from the Bristol end, all of whom are passengers for Brighton? Ie few people alight at any of the intermediate stations, and by extension there is no room for anyone to board at them either?

I can't comment on passenger loadings for every single station, but I've spoken to a lot of passengers (I work at Gloucester station) and they've stated that they're travelling to the south coast.

Hopefully, a simple cross-platform interchange is an adequate replacement.

 

[virgintrain1]

Today I travelled Bristol to Brighton return. I'd say about 30 % of the original Bristol and Bath passengers were still on east of Fareham. Full and standing east of Southampton in both directions. The direct service saved me about an hour due to the current Southern timetable.

 

[Peregrine 4903]

Unfortunate, but unsurprising.

The more significant issue is whether Southern direct services between Brighton and Portsmouth/Southampton ever return.

This only a temperary change until May.

 

[trainmania100]

Brighton isn't just losing its gwr service , it's losing its only fast service along the west coastway. I guess there's quite a few slow services along the route maybe not enough space for a fast train, maybe no need for a fast train, but for the people that do go to Portsmouth and Southampton the full way, there needs to be more than just a 90 minute stopper

 

[Peregrine 4903]

If not Brighton, where will the GWR service terminate instead - Southampton or Portsmouth? There's no SN Southampton - Brighton service at the moment, just to Littlehampton.

That's only because of the Copyhold blockade this week.

Also, Brighton - Southampton/Portsmouth services are returning in May.

 

[JonathanH]

Brighton isn't just losing its gwr service , it's losing its only fast service along the west coastway.

It is a matter of minutes faster, not at all significant.

 

[Peregrine 4903]

Brighton isn't just losing its gwr service , it's losing its only fast service along the west coastway. I guess there's quite a few slow services along the route maybe not enough space for a fast train, maybe no need for a fast train, but for the people that do go to Portsmouth and Southampton the full way, there needs to be more than just a 90 minute stopper

The GWR service had so much pathing time, I wouldn't exactly call it fast.

 

[Towers]

Not seen it mentioned but the early morning service which effectively gets the unit to Brighton serves a number of the smaller stations between Portsmouth and Brighton and has been a very useful work/school trip and a most unusual way to travel

However, all the 'smaller' station calls were omitted if the booked unit was a two car rather than three, so if travelling to/from those stations the service wasn't entirely reliable.

 

[Kremlin Stooge]

I realise mine might be a lonely voice, plaintively piping up to say that I shall miss these services, having used them to connect to Gatwick Airport via a convenient, level interchange at Brighton. Certainly a much more leisurely experience compared with the ruck-and maul of the Circle Line from Paddington to Victoria, or (the one occasion of) dealing with the ticketing “GatExtapo” who didn’t believe a First Class open return between Bristol and the airport could possibly be valid on his service.

Still, I suppose the decision is one of those that we will increasingly see, as bureaucratic tidiness starts to take increasing precedence over what the market would actually like!

 

[route101]

Most (but not quite all) weekends between now and the May timetable change, the Brighton trains won't be running anyway, usually due to some engineering work and bus replacements somewhere along the route between Westbury and Fareham. With that level of uncertainty over whether the trains would actually run at all, it was surely only a matter of time before they were pulled completely.

Yes, I was looking at doing GWR to and from Brighton, services never really operated at the weekend. Only the chance during weekdays?

Brighton to Southampton service, is that getting split too at Barnham?