Great Western Coffee Shop

On the 5th May, I need to travel from Temple Meads to Cosham in the evening.  I'll have a Freedom of Severn and Solent Rover, so I can travel anywhere in the region.

I finish at the university at about 1800 and will arrive at Temple Meads between 1830 and 1840.

Current plan is this:
BRI 1923 - FRM 2127
FRM 2148 - CSA 2158 (or arrive 9 minutes earlier and pay an extra SN fare)

Getting into Cosham at 10pm isn't ideal, I've been looking for something a little quicker.

Came up with this but hit a stumbling point at Southampton:

BRI 1849 - WSB 1936
WSB 1941 - SOU 2048
SOU 2055 - ESL 2106
ESL 2130 - CSA 2158 (so same arrival time)

Can any of you clever people think of anything that I've missed which may make the journey quicker.  Remember I've got a rover, so can travel by an unusual route if that helps.

Went for this in the end:

Bristol - Chippenham 18:30 (HST so has a buffet and power sockets)
Chippenham - Southampton Central 19:01

Someone has agreed to pick me up from Southampton

Sorry, another post of me talking to myself!

The Chippenham - Southampton has a dwell time of 13 minutes at Westbury - is this a unit change or just a sit and wait?

I'm quite keen to use this service anyway as it'll allow me to tick off the TransWilts from my list of lines to visit!

It's just sits and wait for the following train from Trowbridge to come in, terminate, decant its passengers to transfer into the ongoing Southampton service.  Cynics have been know to suggest that the pause has been timetabled in this way to avoid a decently fast service from Swindon to Salisbury giving ammunition to certain local folks looking to show how much faster the direct line is from Chippenham to Salisbury than taking a connecting service via Bath  ;D

Although this may be only of academic interest now, it's something of a minefield using that particular Rover - AIUI Eastleigh to Fareham is unusual in that it isn't on the map, - so using those timings could have caused you a big problem...

Also for any other journeys in the area it's worth reminding that SN services aren't valid either...

Paul

Eastleigh to Fareham via Hedge End is indeed missing form the maps published by National Rail Enquiries and FGW in relation to the areas of validity for the Freedom of Severn and Solent (FOSS) Rover.

The Freedom of the South West Rover (FOSW) does however include that line (at least on the NRE map) and I think it is just an error by omission that the line is not included on FOSS maps. After all, the FOSW is supposed to be a combination of the areas of validity of the FOSS and Freedom of Devon and Cornwall Rovers. So it would be a little perverse to include Hedge End and Botley on the FOSW Rover but not the FOSS Rover.

I've emailed FGW and ATOC to point out what I believe is an error. There's no logical reason I can see for the line from Eastleigh to Fareham via Hedge End to be omitted from the validity of the FOSS Rover.

In the meantime, I'd suggest that all you need to do to ensure you are valid with your FOSS Rover on this line is have a quick word with the guard before boarding. Very, very unlikely you'd be refused travel.

Thanks for pointing that out - certainly an oversight on my part there.

With regards to not being valid on Southern, there is an argument/loophole to get round this.  The NRCoC say "Any such restriction or prohibition will be shown on the ticket."  My ticket simply says "As Advertised".  I have a paper copy of the FGW rover leaflet which does not prohibit any TOC, it just says "You can travel as often as you like on the routes indicated on the map opposite."  As a confused little customer, I can't be expected to know that the ticket isn't valid on "green and white trains" within the area on the map.

Agreed, but everyone will know that it's not valid on the white blue and orange trains, except when they're running from Westbury to Swindon when it is valid ...

.....or the white, blue and orange trains when they stand in for a FGW set between Swindon and Cheltenham.   ;D

On the subject of Rover tickets there is a useful guide to the tickets available and their availability as a giveaway in the May issue of Today's Railways UK.

Am I missing something here? 

The two rovers are valid on SWT, XC, and FGW, according to the web info.  They aren't 'First' products. 

It is only SN that (by their absence from the list) are not valid.

Paul

But the map determines validity. And Southern operate trains over parts of the map (Southampton<->Cosham, Portsmouth<->Fratton). Therefore I'd suggest the FOSS and FOSW Rovers are valid on Southern services on these sections of line.

From National Rail Enquiries:
(My emphasis in bold)

Yes, I read that the first time, and although I agree with your logic about SN services, they are not usable according to a different part of the website. 

I was really just responding to the post about the 'white blue and orange' trains - which I took to be SWT services...

Paul

Looks like we're having a detachment tonight.  My first time down the TransWilts and its a 2x153 combination that was too long for the Melksham platform.  Sitting on my own in the rear coach, the guard asked where I was going then asked me to move to the (slightly) busier front coach as we are splitting at Westbury.  I reckon it'll be heaving by Salisbury.

Detachment is booked to happen.