Southampton Airport - future in the light of the Flybe collapse - should it still be an objective for through trains from Swindon?

It has long been the objective of transport campaigners in Wiltshire to join up Swindon to Westbury, Westbury to Warminster / Salisbury, and Salisbury to Romsey, Southmampton Central and Southampton Airport services.  With each service using trains of similar specification, such a linkage with a would provide for operational efficiency and provide many additional through opportunties, some of them for significant numbers of passengers.  One of those of especial note is a regular direct service to Southampton (Central and Airport) from Swindon, Chippenham and Melksham, and from Trowbridge, Westbury and Warminster direct to Southampton Airport, where through services do not exist today.

But what about Southampton Airport's future in the light of the collapse of FlyBE earlier this week? After all, some 90% of flights from the airport were by that airline.  Well - others have already started stepping in to pick up key routes. 

From the Edinburgh News

As a Scottish newspaper, as you would expected the Edinburgh News has picked up news about Glasgow and Edinburgh and isn't going to be the source of information about other routes being picked up, but it does confirm that FlyBE did not fail because of unviable trunk routes from Southampton.  Perhaps more limited than before, but in due course I would expect to be able to fly from Southampton to the likes of Paris, Amsterdam, Belfast and Dublin and perhaps half a dozen to a dozen other places too.  Flying may be past its peak - the current virus issues are blamed for a drop at the moment and I would guess won't be going away over the next months, and then we have the climate change / zero carbon agenda, but I expect Southampton Airport to bounce back even if not to the number of flights it had, and a rail link from Swindon there to remain a viable part of the Swindon - Salisbury - Southampton case.

 
Sometimes I think we just have to accept that times are changing. Plymouth airport closed many years ago now.  Did the city collapse?  No of course not.  We have wide ranging train services to all parts of the country, and can get trains to Heathrow for overseas flights if needed.

 
There are perfectly sound operational reasons to run the potential joined service through Southampton and back to Romsey anyway, so my gut feeling is I don’t think Southampton Airport’s troubles should affect the underlying business case for a northern extension. 

Does anyone have a figure for the fraction of existing Salisbury <> Romsey service passenger numbers who are actually using the service to catch a flight, compared to those working in or visiting Southampton?

Paul

 

I totally agree.


My gut feeling is that airport passenger numbers on the service are a relatively small proportion.  I would also be very interested in the number of airport or airport related staff using it.   Passenger numbers from beyond Salisbury to/from the airport would not be massive - however, they would be high-value ticket sales so their contribution to income for the service would be more significant than numbers would suggest.

But even without the airport ... Swindon / Chippenham / Melksham to Warminster / Salisbury / Romsey / Southampton Central / Eastleigh all together using a joined-up train that's running(ish) anyway is not to be sneezed at.


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https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/26442955.uk-airline-loganair-announces-southampton-base-will-close/


Part of me - regrets - the loss of any public transport service, especially one that network-connects with other services.  But part of me looks at certain services and worries about why they exist in the first place - in this case, the train really should be doing the job - more environmentally friendly, more frequently, more capacity, and with a better selection of start and end points in the region.

 

Closure of a Manchester route - The PM won't be happy about that...................

Before I retired I once flew from Southampton to Manchester and back - I did that solely as I was meeting up with colleagues from Germany and we were driving on from there in a hire car. I must admit that, even at the time, I did think that the route was a borderline one - especially when they served "afternoon tea"; somewhat pointless, on a short and very bumpy flight.   

Having said that, I flew up to Edinburgh, from Southampton, a few months back with Loganair. Couldn't fault that - even had a Tunnocks wafer with my coffee !

 
Grahame's nailed it. Definitely the train should (and does) do the job.

If you have a meeting in Manchester (before 20th August) and want to get there and back on the same day, there's currently just one offering on Booking.com or Kayak. It's the 12-20 SOU-MAN, return 16-55, 1 hour flight up, 50 minutes return. Those times are (of course) net of check-in times (still one hour?), and getting to the airports at each end, at least 20 minutes by pre-booked taxi each way. As a veteran of many a business meeting when I worked, that doesn't leave much time for the kind of meeting that justifies travelling all that way. Cost? £268

Cross-country runs hourly trains at 15 past the hour from Southampton Central, return at 25 past for much of the day, that you can join at Central, Airport Parkway, Winchester, Basingstoke, Reading (all within Southampton Airport's catchment). It takes 4hrs, 14 mins for Central to Piccadilly, but respectively 7, 17, 31 and 55 minutes less from each of the calling points above, and you are delivered into Manchester city centre as well as having reasonable working conditions (a little cramped, but better than most short-haul aircraft) for your journey. There's also the option of Stockport if that's closer to your venue.  Cost? £69 advance fare, or if your meeting might run on, £150-20 semi-flexible.

Yes, there are reliability concerns, but these apply to air travel as well (and to driving along the M3, M27 or A34 to get to the airport).