South Western Railway has announced a small number of important changes that result in better train connectivity with ferries to the Isle of Wight.
A number of changes to mainland services affecting Islanders have been announced, including a morning service from Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo and morning services between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier.
Changes that will come into effect from 22nd May include:
- The 06:15 service from Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo via Guildford will now run 5 minutes earlier at 06:10.
- The 09:29 service from Brockenhurst to Lymington Pier will now run 13 minutes later at 09:42.
- The 09:44 service from Lymington to Brockenhurst will also now run 13 minutes later at 09:57
Steve Tyler, Performance and Planning Director for South Western Railway, said:
“We are confident that our service levels match demand on the network, but have monitored changes in customer flows and made some minor changes to our timetable.”
“While the majority of our timetable is the same as the one in place, we have made alterations to improve performance and provide better onward travel, such as in Lymington where our services will offer better connectivity with ferries to the Isle of Wight.”
“Our advice to customers is to check before travelling as those changes mean a small number of services will depart slightly earlier, or later, than the December 2022 timetable.”
UPDATE – 14:40: – Wightlink has now announced similar tweaks in line with SWR’s previous announcement – https://www.islandecho.co.uk/wightlink-timetable-changes-to-reflect-new-south-western-railway-service/.
“The 06:15 service from Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo via Guildford will now run 5 minutes earlier at 06:10.”
Are you sure you have got that right?
According to Wightlink’s online timetable dated 27 March 2023 – 3 September 2023, Cat’s leave Ryde Pier head at 0545, with a stated crossing time of 22mins that means the cat will arrive at approximately 0607 making any connection to the 0610 train very tight indeed!
How is that an improvement?
Unknown why they cannot leave a few minutes earlier… and also get ( when pier opens) the train to arrive early enough to get that ferry.. and all the others. Problem I often had with the trains was getting back. I would get off the ferry, walk on my crutches to get the train, and see it had already left. Especially when it was the LAST ONE>.. ever tried walking down the pier on crutches, one leg non weight bearing… in the dark with drizzle rain.. amazed at how slippery the wood surface could get… lucky me though, when I finally got to the bus station, my bus had just left too…
It’s utterly rediculous.How exactly is that better connectivity? Utter bull from SWR. Couple of minutes delay on that cat and the train will be GONE.
Update:
The 05:45 sailing from Ryde Pier Head will now depart at 05:40
Okay and what are the ferries, WightLink doing to help this connection… running late… cancelled.. short staffed.. obviously in my opinion Wightlink do not give a toss…
Why not have a railway tunnel to Island ?? Imagine the amount of profit it would make !!!
How much net profit that would be that you’re talking about? I wouldn’t expect profit margins anywhere near like la Manche.
Cost is simply too much for just the company or Island to take.
But current government has issues with doing a simple HS2 __on the ground__.
And here we’re talking about the tunnel under the sea. I wouldn’t expect them to be able to pull this off.
Connection to EU, sure, there’s lot of money in that and you got help from French. But link to small IOW? I don’t think Tories would be much interested honestly.
You need to factor in : Will Wightlink be running , essential staff missing, or light bulb out in the toilet and the service comes to a grinding halt … trains and ferries both unreliable.. fact