Line between Sway and New Milton flooded in the usual place; it was also shut Saturday morning. Plenty of very heavy rain in Brockenhurst during the day, so not too surprising it flooded again really.. the roads out of Brockenhurst to New Milton didn't hold up too well either.
Where is the usual place? Not being from Hampshire - and therefore unfamiliar with the line - I have no idea.
AFAIK the first service was a 158 forming a 19:31 from Bournemouth to Brockenhurst after one line had opened but without power. I was stranded in New Milton at this point so jumped on planning to stay on and come back down the line once as it was turned around at Brockenhurst. However at 20.30 both lines were open and a 10 car 444 from Waterloo ran fast down to Bournemouth, the 158 waiting to form a stopping service behind it.
Certainly an improvement. Are all lines heading west from Bournemouth bi-directional for a distance though? I managed to photograph 2x Class 444s (444038 & 444031) along with 5706 (older rolling stock: unsure if a DMU or an EMU) at Bournemouth: 444038 was blocking the Platform 4 line though when I got that photo (4:30pm).
Bournemouth was an interesting scene of chaos, a whole load of passengers were waiting in the subway ramp on platform 3, being blocked from entering the platform. The service I came in on was supposed to head down to Weymouth, but it got rescheduled to run back to Southampton instead, with another service was setting off to Weymouth from the little used platform 4. Didn't really feel like hanging around to find out what was going on, but I'd imagine they'd blocked the passengers off on the ramp to stop anyone getting the wrong train!
Bournemouth certainly was chaos: I was also there trying to get a train to Southampton Central so that I could get a train up to Bristol TM as I live in Bristol. I conceived the idea of getting the 1624 to Weymouth which would have got to Weymouth at 1715 if on schedule: I could then have got an X53 to Exeter (dep. Weymouth KS 1745) and thence a train to Bristol. A train did depart P3 heading west at 1624 but I don't know if it was in service or not as I heard nothing on the PA system: the screen mentioned two 1624 departures to Weymouth of which only 1 was cancelled. Either way I din't buy the ticket anyway. Eventually, having been at Bournemouth Station since 2:35pm I gave up at 5:00pm and managed to share a taxi to Southampton Central for which my contribution was £15. (£60 between 4 people).
Absolute chaos at Brock, SWT had enormous trouble sourcing replacement vehicles and eventually mustered a coach from somewhere and a pair of very old Darts from Eastleigh opearator Xelabus. These dissapeared off to Bournemouth leaving a sizeable queue still waiting, and an hour or so later nothing much else had occured save for a 22 seat airport taxi.
I passed a few Xelabus vehicles as I was in the taxi to Southampton. Saw at least one Dart and a double-decker as well: don't remember what else.
Incidentally, it led to a rare selection of traction ay BMH, with the 158 in the bay and a pair of 455s stabled in the siding at the down end.
As I said earlier I saw 2x Class 444s at Bournemouth parked up at the west end of the station with a train numbered simply 5706. Was that the Class 455? If not what class was '5706'? Never seen a 455 so I don't know.
Although I find it odd that SWT couldn't have got some coaches from a local firm in Bournemouth (I would be surprised if there wasn't at least one coach firm in Bournemouth), SWT were put in a difficult position rather quickly. I had dropped a car to an address in Ringwood and the sky proceeded to open up with rain, hail, thunder and lightning as I arrived at the address at around 12:50pm. The storm was still going, albeit much more heavily, when I left the customer's address around 50 minutes later. She gave me a lift into the town centre from where I didn't have to wait at all for a Bournemouth-bound X3. So those problems at Sway kicked off very quickly indeed as things had come to a stand at Bournemouth station by the time I got there - fortunately in the sunshine as the storm didn't get into Bournemouth - at 2:35pm.
Dave
:roll: