Great Western Coffee Shop

Off to (hopefully) sunny Horsham on Saturday, having checked routes and costs there are a number of options but the key is knowing where to get 'split tickets' plus should I look at the Southern 25% deal for online sales.

Travelling from Worle at around 09:45, need to be in Horsham no later than 14:30 travelling back around 17:30 (not bothered re journey times, cost is driver this weekend).

Any help/advice much appreciated

On walk-up tickets, a super off-peak return (valid anytime on Saturday) is ^66.00.

My first thought would be splitting at Southampton Central, if you are happy travelling that route.
Worle - Southampton Central ^31.00 Off-Peak Return
Southampton Central - Horsham ^15.00 Off-Peak Day Return, route Havant (^13.35 on Southern's website)

If you are travelling solely with Southern between Southampton and Horsham, a Southern DaySave would be cheaper at ^12 each or ^24 for a group, however these must be booked a week in advance.

Advance tickets would also be available when splitting at Southampton, but you would need to be careful with late running/missed connections when doing this.

How many people are travelling, as group discounts are available?

Split at Fratton.

Worle -> Fratton @ 0949 or 1018 = ^19
Fratton -> Horsham & return - buy Southern Day return online for discount
Fratton -> Worle @ 1931 = ^10
(dep Horsham @ 1805, change @ Barnham 1839/1842 arr Fratton @ 1913)

There's a big engineering block on at Southampton this weekend to switch over to the new interlocking, with SN running a retimed Victoria service to/from Fareham and via Portsmouth and Southsea.

So FGW should run through to Fratton OK via Eastleigh and Fareham, but your best options for changing between tickets may be slightly different to normal, eg Fareham.  Also beware of buying a SN only ticket from Southampton which AIUI would theoretically require you to go into and out of Southampton by bus.

Paul

Many thanks