[SWT] Return of the football special.....

[DaveHarries]

Hi all,

According to the website of SouthWest trains there will be five additional train workings tomorrow in connection with extra trains for Portsmouth fans heading to Bournemouth. The train will have 5 carriages:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/specialtrain.aspx

The trains will be coded as follows:

5Z61 1154 Fratton CSD - Portsmouth & Southsea
2Z61 1211 Portsmouth & Southsea - Bournemouth, arr. 1347
5Z61 1435 Bournemouth - Poole Storage Sidings

for the return trips:

5Z62 1708 Poole Storage Sidings - Bournemouth
2Z62 1730 Bournemouth - Portsmouth & Southsea, arr. 1903
5Z62 1912 Portsmouth & Southsea - Fratton CSD

Calling pattern for 2Z61 after departure will be Fratton, Hilsea, Cosham, Porchester, Fareham and then non-stop via. St. Denys, Southampton Central & Brockenhurst. 2Z62 - the return trip - will call at Pokesdown, Brockenhurst (operational pause), then non-stop via. Southampton Central & St. Denys to Fareham, Portchester, Cosham, Hillsea & Fratton.

Hope this is of interest.
Dave

 

[455driver]

According to the website of SouthWest trains there will be five additional train workings tomorrow

That is one additional train of 5 carriages not 5 complete trains!

 

[Morgsie]

Why is it going to Poole Sidings instead of the 2 Siding at Bournemouth?

 

[455driver]

Are those sidings normally used on a Saturday?

Another possibility to get the train cleaned, football fans are p*ssed on the way to the game so the train will be a mess, what it will be like when it gets back to Fratton is anyones guess. Still, at least they will have all day Sunday to get it fit for service on Monday morning.

 

[David Goddard]

Good on SWT! We saw this happen with GA for the Norwich v Peterborough Cup tie a few weeks ago and now SWT have done something extra for fans in their area. No reason why there can not be more Footex workings brought back, for the benefit of travelling fans, and the regular rail users as well.

 

[455driver]

Depends how much damage is caused to the train!

 

[fgwrich]

I presume this must be the start of the Tim Shoveller reign then. I wonder if they've been looking at how FGW operates it's special services...

[youtube]uH-OIVf92QQ[/youtube]

(Fratton (Portsmouth) To pick up the footy people back to cardiff central )

 

[DarloRich]

Are those sidings normally used on a Saturday?

Another possibility to get the train cleaned, football fans are p*ssed on the way to the game so the train will be a mess, what it will be like when it gets back to Fratton is anyones guess. Still, at least they will have all day Sunday to get it fit for service on Monday morning.

Depends how much damage is caused to the train!

Yes All football fans smash up trains and are ratted all the time, especially at 12 noon! Grow a brain :roll:

I get the train to the football all the time and have never once smashed up a train or seen a train destroyed (or even damaged!) by rampaging football fans. Utter wibble.

 

[johnnychips]

I get the train to the football all the time and have never once smashed up a train or seen a train destroyed (or even damaged!) by rampaging football fans. Utter wibble.

And BTP aren't daft either. When Stoke played Everton, returnees to Liverpool who had just missed the Crewe train were told to change at Stockport to EMT not Man Picc to avoid potential clashes with Man C/U fans (sorry I forgot which), But as Darlo Rich said, most Everton fans looked like 'normal' people like me and you.

 

[Essexman]

Depends how much damage is caused to the train!

We're not in the 1970s now.

 

[swt_passenger]

We're not in the 1970s now.

They still are when it comes to Portsmouth and Southampton unfortunately.

As a local, I firmly believe the whole point of this is to avoid a whole load of Portsmouth fans being targetted (while having to make the normal change at Southampton) on the way to/from Bournemouth.

 

[DaveHarries]

That is one additional train of 5 carriages not 5 complete trains!

Fair point. I meant extra trains overall, not just passenger ones.

Dave

 

[ChiefPlanner]

We're not in the 1970s now.

Exactly and well said - there may be some very high spirits and so on , but the sheer destruction , seat slashing , window breaking , kicking in ceiling panels and so on that was so endemic all over then , is now very much a thing of the past. There was some legendary game at Luton which resulted in a class 11x being burned out by fans. Some MK1 stock ended up being withdrawn after damage - it was instrumental in getting the no alcohol ban in place.

On one occasion , North London Railways run an epic programme of specials when Northampton played at Wembley - (around 45 extras on the day - using every 321 , 3x9 car 310 , 2x6 car 313 and a 9 car MK1 set with an 86/4) - not a scratch of damage , mind you that was 1996/7/. I must write this up sometime.