Voyager On The Salisbury/Romsey line heading towards Southampton

[Supersaint]

Morning all, last couple of evenings I’ve seen a Cross Country Voyager set come in from the Salisbury/Romsey line at Redbridge (Southampton) & head on towards Southampton, both time was around 7.40ish. Wondered why this had been re-routed as when I drove into Southampton 20 minutes later a Cross Country service left Southampton Central heading Northwards through the tunnel ?.
Any Idea's Please

 

[dorsetman]

Morning all, last couple of evenings I’ve seen a Cross Country Voyager set come in from the Salisbury/Romsey line at Redbridge (Southampton) & head on towards Southampton, both time was around 7.40ish. Wondered why this had been re-routed as when I drove into Southampton 20 minutes later a Cross Country service left Southampton Central heading Northwards through the tunnel ?.
Any Idea's Please

That's the 13.35 from Newcastle to Southampton Central. It travels via Andover.

 

[swt_passenger]

...and the reason for that route seems to be that the XC cannot be suitably pathed south of Winchester, because of the 1905 stopping service from Winchester to Southampton Central which is itself followed immediately by the 'Salisbury 6' stopper, the 1921 from Eastleigh.

 

[thefab444]

It would be fine if it arrived at Basingstoke at 1840 rather than 1847, it might then just be able to slot in at Southampton Central between the 1748 WAT - SOU (arrival 1914) and the 1805 WAT - WEY (arrival 1918).

 

[swt_passenger]

It would be fine if it arrived at Basingstoke at 1840 rather than 1847, it might then just be able to slot in at Southampton Central between the 1748 WAT - SOU (arrival 1914) and the 1805 WAT - WEY (arrival 1918).

In a normal hour the XC service is at Winchester at xx00, followed 5 mins later by the fast SWT at xx05, but the 1805 SWT is non stop to Winchester arriving there at 1900, so presumably passing through Basingstoke about 5 mins earlier than normal. I think either the XC would therefore have to run 5 mins earlier than usual through Basingstoke, or the SWT fast would have to be delayed. Perhaps thought too risky given that the XC has come from Newcastle, and couldn't be late at that point?

I also wonder if the bottom line when they tried to path the train was that no existing services could be altered at all?

 

[Drsatan]

In a normal hour the XC service is at Winchester at xx00, followed 5 mins later by the fast SWT at xx05, but the 1805 SWT is non stop to Winchester arriving there at 1900, so presumably passing through Basingstoke about 5 mins earlier than normal. I think either the XC would therefore have to run 5 mins earlier than usual through Basingstoke, or the SWT fast would have to be delayed. Perhaps thought too risky given that the XC has come from Newcastle, and couldn't be late at that point?

I also wonder if the bottom line when they tried to path the train was that no existing services could be altered at all?

I'm assuming that if XC wanted to run the Newcastle service via Winchester it would be very difficult to timetable the train to run five minutes earlier since services between Birmingham NS and Reading would probably have to be retimed to allow for that. Since FGW would be strongly opposed to having to recast its timetable on the GWML to allow for an XC service to run five minutes earlier that's probably why the XC service cannot run five minutes earlier.


It's also unfortunate that the 1848 service to Southampton cannot call at Andover: this is because it departs 10 minutes behind the 1838 all stations service (1750 ex-Waterloo)and by the time it reaches Andover it's only one minute behind. However, there's no reason why it couldn't call at Romsey - the platform's long enough to take a 221 and it's not running immediately in front of any extra service - the next train departs Romsey at 1951.

 

[thefab444]

In a normal hour the XC service is at Winchester at xx00, followed 5 mins later by the fast SWT at xx05, but the 1805 SWT is non stop to Winchester arriving there at 1900, so presumably passing through Basingstoke about 5 mins earlier than normal. I think either the XC would therefore have to run 5 mins earlier than usual through Basingstoke, or the SWT fast would have to be delayed. Perhaps thought too risky given that the XC has come from Newcastle, and couldn't be late at that point?

I also wonder if the bottom line when they tried to path the train was that no existing services could be altered at all?

There isn't really a "normal hour" for those additional XC services, but they are mostly xx/28 at Bramley, xx:38 - xx:40 at Basingstoke, xx:54 - 55 at Winchester. The diverted XC (1O90) is 18/28 through Bramley - so the same path as usual - then xx:47 - xx:48 at Basingstoke. Seeing as the 18:05 WAT - WEY doesn't pass Basingstoke till 18/44, I can't see any reason why 1O90 couldn't run in the usual additional XC path. It might get a bit tight between Southampton Airport and Southampton Central but still within headway requirements.

There's enough slack in 1O90's schedule for Andover and Romsey calls but that would make it even more non-standard!

 

[swt_passenger]

The other potential issue if it runs ahead of the 1805 SWT is that there might be freights in the way - do you have access to any relevant freight timings?

 

[thefab444]

As far as I can tell there are no freight paths that actually run in the way but there could well be some random path that never runs but must be retained.

 

[francisoldfield]

is it possible that it is routed that way to keep up train crew route knowledge.

First thing and last thing at night you see a Voyager travel through Havant, one in either direction. Useful to keep knowledge up on diversionary routes?

 

[swt_passenger]

is it possible that it is routed that way to keep up train crew route knowledge.

First thing and last thing at night you see a Voyager travel through Havant, one in either direction. Useful to keep knowledge up on diversionary routes?

The one that goes through Havant isn't primarily for route knowledge, it's also the obvious route between Guildford and Eastleigh, where the trains stable overnight.

XC route knowledge diversions seem to have changed fairly regularly in the area over the last few years, but it is unusual to do such a diversion at an otherwise busy time of day. They've usually been last trains of the night in the past, and there was a Sunday morning up train in passenger service via Laverstock for a while, and I'm fairly sure there are other early morning ECS moves that go 'up' that way as well.