Travel to London from Southampton

[pully8]

interested to know why 1st class is cramped?

is it the seating or overbooking passengers?

 

[exlondoner]

22 minutes ago, pully8 said:

interested to know why 1st class is cramped?

is it the seating or overbooking passengers?

 

 

The seating gives very little more room than starndard. Southwestern is basically a commuter railway, so the emphasis is on fitting in as many seats as possible. Out of the rush hour it is rarely crowded.

[pully8]

thanks for your reply.

is there more room for luggage in 1st?

[North West Newbie]

4 minutes ago, pully8 said:

thanks for your reply.

is there more room for luggage in 1st?

 

Other than the overhead luggage racks, which are not suitable for large cases, there is no designated luggage space. Cases end up either on spare seats and/or in the vestibules.

[exlondoner]

Not really. I suppose if there aren't many passengers you can put more luggage on the seats. But it's not very good.

[rakkor]

On 12/7/2019 at 12:03 AM, Thaxted said:

A 1st class ticket can indeed be very expensive, but the 1st class Advance Fare can be as low as £15 per person. Of course, if you have lots of luggage (BigMac is right that finding a place for your bags can be challenging) and you add the cost of the taxis in London and Southampton Central to the ship, a car service might be preferable to you.   

 

Indeed Jane and myself traveled first class to New Milton on our recent QM2 trip for £30 (using a railcard) but I do agree the space for luggage is woeful and wold never comtemplate the train because of that (we'd already delivered our cases earlier in the week to Janes dad's)

[pully8]

Another issue was no seat reservations can be made in 1st which we found unusually. 

[exlondoner]

5 minutes ago, pully8 said:

Another issue was no seat reservations can be made in 1st which we found unusually. 

 

As I said, it's basically a commuter service. In any case, outside rush hours, you wouldn't need to reserve a seat in normal circumstances.

[pully8]

thanks for your reply.

 

[Kidminder]

More room if you book the extra legroom with National Express (reserve seats too)  have done both.....in both cases getting to Victoria was more of a pain (underground rush hour🥺)

[pully8]

Just an update we travelled to and from Southampton with the train from waterloo.

Worked out ok with pre purchased tickets on line.

Can understand why 1st is not necessary now but that is what we had booked.

Tiny section with 8 seats but it served our purposes.

Staff were very helpful at the stations with directions.

Taxis to and from the ship easy albeit one did not like to accept credit card payment. 

Disembarkation was not as easy as getting on but our travel agent had warned us about that process.

Not sure if that is always the case.

The ship seemed pretty full with many people needing wheel chair assistance and other mobility aids.  

 

[old fool]

On 11/14/2019 at 9:44 AM, MarkBearSF said:

We've had great luck with Blackberry. Less costly than Smith's and they've done well for us.
https://www.blackberrycars.com

 

Yes, we second that advice. Fast, reasonable price, door to door very good service.