• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

How busy have the services to Weymouth (FGW and SWT) been?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Drsatan

Established Member
Joined
24 Aug 2009
Messages
1,884
Location
Land of the Sprinters
Hi everyone

I'm planning on going to Weymouth next weekend to watch the sailing. Can anyone confirm whether the services to and from Weymouth (FGW via Westbury and SWT via Bournemouth) are full and standing?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

DavidBrown

Member
Joined
29 Mar 2011
Messages
234
Location
North Devon
According to local media reports, most services, whilst busy, have seating room right into Weymouth. The roads are apparently fairly quiet aswell.
 

dk1

Veteran Member
Joined
2 Oct 2009
Messages
15,821
Location
East Anglia
According to local media reports, most services, whilst busy, have seating room right into Weymouth. The roads are apparently fairly quiet aswell.

The local tourist industry has be moaning that trade is down as the regulars have given Weymouth a wide berth. I think that was obvious in a similar way that Boris & TfL has scared off the theatre goers etc from Londons West End.
 

fgwrich

Established Member
Joined
15 Apr 2009
Messages
9,250
Location
Between Edinburgh and Exeter
Be carefull if your after the FGW Weymouth HST though, as it's only being used on a 'As required Basis', which it hasnt been for the past few days. SWT also has two 158s and Two 159s down there at the moment, also to provide an as required extra shuttle service up to Bournemouth, which unfortunatly that too has been running empty for the past few days too{ It's good that there down there to provide an a possible extra service, but it has led to short formed Salisbury services and services formed of 2 car 158s.]
 
Last edited:

garnon

Member
Joined
26 Aug 2008
Messages
108
Be carefull if your after the FGW Weymouth HST though, as it's only being used on a 'As required Basis', which it hasnt been for the past few days. SWT also has two 158s and Two 159s down there at the moment, also to provide an as required extra shuttle service up to Bournemouth, which unfortunatly that too has runny empty for the past few days too{ It's good that there down there to provide an a possible extra service, but it has led to short formed Salisbury services and services formed of 2 car 158s.]

09.50 Bournemouth - Weymouth ran lightly loaded today. 5 car (159 + 158). Not sure whether the 10.50 extra was busier.

Also noted a 450 on the Lymington branch - I recall this is normally a 158 turn so perhaps that is also as a consequence of the 158's on the Weymouth
 

fgwrich

Established Member
Joined
15 Apr 2009
Messages
9,250
Location
Between Edinburgh and Exeter
09.50 Bournemouth - Weymouth ran lightly loaded today. 5 car (159 + 158). Not sure whether the 10.50 extra was busier.

Also noted a 450 on the Lymington branch - I recall this is normally a 158 turn so perhaps that is also as a consequence of the 158's on the Weymouth

Ah interesting, as ive noticed a slight increase in the switching of the 444s to the Bas services, and pairs of 450s running on the Weymouth Fasts.

Don't have any info on the XC services unfortunatly.
 

anthony263

Established Member
Joined
19 Aug 2008
Messages
6,518
Location
South Wales
I did hear the 07:05 Cardiff - Weymouth adtional service and the return working has actually been pretty quiet
 

starrymarkb

Established Member
Joined
4 Aug 2009
Messages
5,985
Location
Exeter
With good weather you could get a lot more descending on the town, but if its crap then the ticketless people may not bother
 

Lrd

Established Member
Joined
26 Jul 2010
Messages
3,018
450s on the Lymington branch is normal on weekends, it's only a 158 Mon-Fri.
 

Morgsie

Member
Joined
3 Jun 2011
Messages
370
Location
Stoke-On-Trent
There was an article in Rail issue 701 where the the SWT/NR Alliance criticized the Relief Rd and said that the money should have been used to upgrade the Electric Supply
 

The Ham

Established Member
Joined
6 Jul 2012
Messages
10,282
True, but has the 450 been on the branch all week?

Im told that even the XC Loadings have also been light all week too. Something no doubt down the the predicted passenger flow then?

When I was at Basingstoke station on Tuesday a XC train (0910 formed of 2x5 coaches with the front 5 going to Weymouth) called there, passanger numbers coming into the station looked light (although it could well have been quite busy if just 5 coaches long). Although a fair number of people got on, it was by no way packed. However this was at 0910, so people may have been aiming to get there earlier than this service arrived.
 

lj9090

Member
Joined
6 Mar 2012
Messages
134
Location
Bournemouth
True, but has the 450 been on the branch all week?

It was on Friday. Could quite possible have been the rest of the week but I didn't think to notice - unless my usual train's a little late or the lymo a little early I quite often miss seeing it anyway.

Took a trip to Weymouth yesterday, went down on the 14.04 from Bournemouth and back up on the 20.10. Got handed a leaflet at the ticket office and was told, somewhat sarcastically, "We have to give you this". The leaflet warned of a queuing system outside Weymouth and to get to the station 40 minutes before the departure.
So got there 5 minutes prior, and apart from having to walk through all the queuing barricades, there was no queue and it was straight through and onto the train. It was busy, but everyone had a seat and no-one had to stand.

One thing that has changed is there's a noticeable increase in ticket checks. The last two months have been especially light - not only on the trains but the barriers at BMH have been open most of the times I was through. Not anymore.
 

Drsatan

Established Member
Joined
24 Aug 2009
Messages
1,884
Location
Land of the Sprinters
OK, thanks for your replies. It looks as though all of these predictions about people being left behind at Bournemouth and Weymouth were over the top!

I don't have a ticket, so I'd be grateful if anyone could recommend a good vantage point to watch the sailing.
 

D1009

Established Member
Joined
22 Feb 2012
Messages
3,166
Location
Stoke Gifford
I don't have a ticket, so I'd be grateful if anyone could recommend a good vantage point to watch the sailing.

That's part of the problem, some of the racing takes place quite a way out to sea, so it's not that good as a spectator sport. Unless you are a sailor yourself, it's quite difficult to work out what exactly is going on. I'm sure a lot of people know this and therefore opt to watch it on TV and have the advantage of a commentary, helicopter views etc. That's why it's been so difficult to predict numbers.
 

ChiefPlanner

Established Member
Joined
6 Sep 2011
Messages
7,768
Location
Herts
By all accounts , some of the specially prepared car parks (no doubt as part of the new relief road bonanza) - have had 5% utilisation......
 

soil

Established Member
Joined
28 May 2012
Messages
1,956
The local tourist industry has be moaning that trade is down as the regulars have given Weymouth a wide berth. I think that was obvious in a similar way that Boris & TfL has scared off the theatre goers etc from Londons West End.


Indeed, I would guess that stations on the line(s) will be severely affected too, e.g., Bournemouth is presumably suffering a loss in trade with no upside at all.
 

calc7

Established Member
Joined
8 Aug 2011
Messages
2,097
Well I got flamed a couple of months ago for suggesting XC running Voyagers to Weymouth would be a waste.
 

Rich McLean

Established Member
Joined
6 Feb 2012
Messages
1,684
Well I got flamed a couple of months ago for suggesting XC running Voyagers to Weymouth would be a waste.

Yet now you have been proven right. It was hard to predict passenger flows for Weymouth
 

MrC

Member
Joined
20 Nov 2009
Messages
199
And today the beach and trains have been full and standing.
 

6Gman

Established Member
Joined
1 May 2012
Messages
8,382
Well I got flamed a couple of months ago for suggesting XC running Voyagers to Weymouth would be a waste.

My recollection is that the flaming was because you produced no evidence to support your hypothesis.
 

calc7

Established Member
Joined
8 Aug 2011
Messages
2,097
My recollection is that the flaming was because you produced no evidence to support your hypothesis.

My argument centred around the fact that if rolling stock can be found to tag onto the rural end of the network, why on earth is it not working the busy, rammed core.
 

The Colonel

Member
Joined
1 Feb 2011
Messages
261
I'd be interested in any reports of the SWT 158/9 extras on Mon & Tues please, either if they run or loadings.
 

DDB

Member
Joined
11 Sep 2011
Messages
472
My argument centred around the fact that if rolling stock can be found to tag onto the rural end of the network, why on earth is it not working the busy, rammed core.

Because this is a two week temporary situation of national priority for which there was seven years notice!

DDB
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,258
There was an article in Rail issue 701 where the the SWT/NR Alliance criticized the Relief Rd and said that the money should have been used to upgrade the Electric Supply

The relief road will be used in the long term to reduce local congestion in the areas it bypasses, and was on the plans long before the Olympics were thought of.

The rail power supply is perfectly adequate for the normal day to day 2 tph use.

Rail mag exaggerating the situation somewhat?
 

calc7

Established Member
Joined
8 Aug 2011
Messages
2,097
Because this is a two week temporary situation of national priority for which there was seven years notice!

DDB

I still don't think you get my point. If the Olympics are going to be that busy, and if they are going to generate that much more traffic, why not put the gold-dust Voyagers/HSTs on the core and leave the Dorset coast extensions to the regional operators.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top