un-happy commuter

My travel home from work options are like this at the moment. I can leave work at 16:15 and scoot up to the train station and try to catch the 16:46 Virgin (now Cross Country) service (to Manchester) and change at either Southampton Central or the airport and get on the Totton-Romsey shuttle train to Eastleigh. These shuttle trains are normally quite full, so I have to stand. Therefore I always change at the airport as its only 5 mins from airport to Eastleigh, so isn’t that terrible. What is bad though is that these trains are normally full of rowdy teenagers who have “gone down to the city to hang around”. Using these trains get me to Eastleigh at around 17:34.

My other option is to wait and catch the 16:59 South West Trains Waterloo service from Bournemouth. Then change onto the stopping service to Winchester arriving at Eastleigh at 17:56. This has its advantages in that I can change trains either at Brockenhurst, Southampton Central, or at the airport, there is always seats available, not may rowdy teenagers, and I gain 15 mins of flexi time at work being able to work until 16:30.

Up to now having both options is working OK. However, the new train timetables were issued yesterday, starting on 9 December and things have changed. Going to work and to/from football on a Saturday is OK. However the Totton-Romsey shuttle is being replaced by a Salisbury-Eastleigh-Southampton-Salisbury circular service and is being retimed as a result. It now longer gets overtaken at Southampton by the 16:46 Manchester service. In fact this service will become the 16:45 service, it getting an extra minute to get to Brockenhurst. This new Salisbury circular service now leaves after the 16:59 train and will get into Eastleigh at 17:47. So I’ve lost 13 mins each day but not having an ‘earlier train’. So there is no point in me leaving work for the 16:45, I won’t get home any quicker. So my flexi would improve working to 16:30. However there is no Winchester stopping service anymore, so all the passengers from that train, heading to all station up to Eastleigh will be on my Salisbury circular service. I said already how busy it was. If they keep it as the normal two-car units as it is at the moment then its going to be chaos. No room for everyone. If I want to avoid this train then the next one to Eastleigh won’t get in till 18:06, thus loosing me even more time. This being the 17:05 from Bournemouth. Advantage is that I don’t have to change train, disadvantage is the it takes longer, but at least its an option if I miss the 16:59.

I’ll have to see what is it going to be like after the timetable change, just I’m not looking Sforward to it one bit.