In today’s world, the only competitive rail route from London to Bournemouth passes through Southampton Central, therefore any blockade at or west of SOU necessitates a replacement bus service. Before the Beeching Axe however, it would have also been possible to route a train from London to Bournemouth via Andover and Fordingbridge, despite being a longer distance than the main line via Southampton.
This begs me to ask the question, have any London - Bournemouth trains ever used this route whenever the SWML was closed for engineering work? It would have taken much longer due to the fact that Bournemouth - Fordingbridge was a bit of a dog-leg via Wimborne, and the Laverstock Chord didn’t exist back then so trains would have needed to have reversed at Salisbury. Even so, I reckon if such a diversion had existed, for passengers it would have more convenient than changing modes, especially since the A31 and A338 roads hadn’t been dualled back then so a coach journey would have been slower.
This begs me to ask the question, have any London - Bournemouth trains ever used this route whenever the SWML was closed for engineering work? It would have taken much longer due to the fact that Bournemouth - Fordingbridge was a bit of a dog-leg via Wimborne, and the Laverstock Chord didn’t exist back then so trains would have needed to have reversed at Salisbury. Even so, I reckon if such a diversion had existed, for passengers it would have more convenient than changing modes, especially since the A31 and A338 roads hadn’t been dualled back then so a coach journey would have been slower.
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