Train from Bath to Southampton Questions

[Cruisen Elf]

We are departing from Bath on Tuesday, September 10, 2019 to meet our Princess cruise in Southampton.  We are planning to take the train since there is no direct coach service.   The Great Western Railroad (GWR) shows multiple trains available for earlier dates, but does not show any availability yet for our date, since it is more than 90 days away.  Is it safe to presume that they will continue to offer train service to Southampton at similar times and prices for our date?  I also wanted to check if I should list the Southampton Town Quay, or Southampton Central as our destination.

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.  I'm counting on the great advice our Cruise Critic UK travel experts provide!

[Globaliser]

50 minutes ago, Cruisen Elf said:

Is it safe to presume that they will continue to offer train service to Southampton at similar times and prices for our date?

 

Yes.

 

50 minutes ago, Cruisen Elf said:

I also wanted to check if I should list the Southampton Town Quay, or Southampton Central as our destination.

 

Southampton Central. I don't think that Southampton Town Quay is a current station, if indeed it ever was.

 

Out of pure pedantry, though, I think you will find it is the Great Western Railway. 

[Cruisen Elf]

Thanks for the information!  Now I can plan accordingly.  And I stand corrected - my notes show Railway, but I typed Railroad.  These things happen all too often in my world!

[Cotswold Eagle]

To expand on JB’s concise and accurate ‘Yes’, the rail timetable changes twice a year, in May and December, and fares change (most often upwards 🙂) in January. We have had the timetable change, so the scheduled services and fares will be exactly the same in September as they are now. 

[John Bull]

Southampton Town Quay is a red herring.

It doesn't appear on the National Rail website, it does appear on GWR's website but shows nil availability. 

There's no such station, and never was -  it refers to the inclusion of a bus service called QuayConnect, which runs from Southampton Central station to Town Quay for the benefit of passengers heading to the Isle of Wight on ferries which leave from Town Quay. It's free for Nat Express coach & Red Funnel ferry passengers, but presumably no longer for rail passengers and GWR's website hasn't been updated to delete it.

So the station that you want is Southampton Central

 

Princess' usual cruise terminals are Mayflower terminal (berth 105/6) or Ocean cruise terminal (berth 46)

There are no local buses to Mayflower - it's a 20 minute walk or a taxi hop..
Ocean is a 30 minute walk from the station, but the QuayConnect bus - and several other frequent bus routes to Town Quay - leave you with just a ten-minute walk. 
Or a taxi from the rank at the station to either of the Princess terminals is a lot quicker and simpler and will cost about £7 - £8.

 

Use the hourly direct train service from Bath, it's much quicker, simpler & cheaper than the other options.

The fare is around £28, but if you pre-book for a specific train time it's around only £12. To stress, those budget tickets are only good for the train time that you booked - if you miss that train your tickets are trash & you'll have to buy full-price tickets.

 

I find the National Rail website far more informative than GWR's . Prices are identical, whichever of those websites you use.

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk

 

JB 

[Cruisen Elf]

Thanks everyone for all the detailed information.  For some reason, I hadn't been able to find the train info on the National Rail website, but the link provided worked great as long as I stayed within about 90 days.  Glad to know that taxis are readily available at the Southampton station as that was our plan!

[Globaliser]

11 hours ago, Cruisen Elf said:

For some reason, I hadn't been able to find the train info on the National Rail website, but the link provided worked great as long as I stayed within about 90 days.

 

Basically, you can normally book rail travel only three months ahead.

[JBare]

You can go to the GWR website and download timetable B1 to confirm train times for your dates but as mentioned can't pre book yet.

 

https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/train-times

[Highpeaklad]

You can’t pre-book more than 12 weeks as a rule as that is when the actual timetable is finalised to account for closures due to engineering works and the like (as opposed to the intended timetable that you can see now). These usually occur at weekends so it would be very unusual for travel on a Tuesday to be affected. 

[Cruisen Elf]

Thanks everyone for all the great information.  Our Cruise Critic UK travel experts are the best!