Travel on rail strike day - an example of the alternatives

[whole diary]

[grahame]

A good friend and her husband are arriving into Southampton in the morning of Saturday 17th December, and Lisa has flagged this up to me to ask the best way for them to reach Melksham that day.  The "normal" way is by train, Salisbury to Westbury and Westbury to Melksham.   But there is a dispute between the various parties in the rail indusrty - nothing to do with the couple travelling, but they are caught in the crossfire - and that crossfire includes worry even if the strike gets called off in the end.

1. My understanding from past strikes is that there will be no services from Southampton to Westbury, or even part of the way.  Anyone's guess on the Westbury to Swindon leg, but that'll be of no use if there's no way to Westbury.   But there will be (an hourly?) service from Southampton to London, and from London to Brisol via Chippenham.   Not sure about a Basingstoke to Reading connection.

2. Buses run Southampton - Salisbury, Salisbury - Devizes and Devizes - Melksham.

3. Taxi, or lift?

4. Coach service provided by the cruise company

5. Hire car with local dropoff

6. Stay in a hotel in Southampton until Sunday?

Question - on a strike day, where no trains are running via Salisbury, would a "via Salisbury" ticket be accepted by any reasonable and operating route?

[ChrisB]

Depends in how quickly the timetable for the day in question is published.

If published with goodnofice, I doubt it is the answer to your question. You would need a valid ticket for the route chosen unfortunately.

Not sure of the arrival time into Southampton (disembarkation?). All rail travel woukd need conpleting by 1830, which unless starting reasonably early, knowing the lack of regular Melksham services.

However, in past RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) strikes, there havebeen hourly BSK^▸ (Brake Standard Corridor (carriage))-RDG^‡(resolve) GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services and, indeed, some XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services SOU-RDG. Your froend may strike (!) lucky if they can start their journey early enough, but so make a plan B until the timetablesare published for that day

[grahame]

... arriving into Southampton in the morning of Saturday 17th December, and Lisa has flagged this up to me to ask the best way for them to reach Melksham that day.  ...

[snip]

2. Buses run Southampton - Salisbury, Salisbury - Devizes and Devizes - Melksham.

[snip]

This (bus) looks like the choice:

Salisbury Red X7 / X7R - hourly from
09:10 West Quay, Southampton or
09:14 Central Station, Southampton
10:28 New Canal, Salisbury

Salisbury Red, route 2
10:55 New Canal Salisbury also 11:55 and 12:55, then 14:25, 16:05 and 17:40
12:08 Market Place, Devizes

Faresaver, 272
12:32 Market Place, Devizes and hourly
12:50 Coronation Road, Melksham. Right outside our home!