Due to a lack of available vehicles, a reduced Southern rail replacement bus service will be in operation between Chichester and Southampton Central this weekend.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day on Sunday 29 January.

Customer Advice

This weekend, on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 January, there will be disruption to rail replacement bus services on some Southern routes.

You will need to leave extra time, and you may also need to use another route.

The following bus routes will be affected, each in both directions:

Chichester to Portsmouth Harbour:

On Saturday, a limited service will run, calling at all stations. Express services will not be able to run. After 13.45, services are expected to be particularly affected, with delays over 2 hours for some journeys.

On Sunday, a regular stopping bus service will run, but there will be no express services.

Chichester / Havant to Southampton Central:

A limited direct bus service will run to connect Havant with stations to Southampton Central. When this is not running, it is recommended that you use alternative buses between Havant and Fratton, for trains between Fratton and Southampton Central.

East Croydon to Clapham Junction / London area:

Buses will run through each day on this route, although services are expected to only run half-hourly at times.

Overnight services (from Saturday into Sunday) will not operate. This includes the extended overnight route to London Victoria, and the buses connecting with London Bridge.

Alternative routes for your journey:

South Coast

Southern tickets will be valid on:

• South Western Railway and Great Western Railway services between Portsmouth and Southampton Central
• Stagecoach Buses between Portsmouth, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton (where you may need to change buses) and Brighton

 

Please note that Stagecoach 700 buses do not serve Barnham.

London area

Southern tickets will be valid on:

• London Buses on any reasonable route between the Croydon area, Clapham Junction and Central London (including night buses).
• London Underground on any reasonable route to transfer between Central London stations, as well as Balham (this will include night tube services, where available).
• London Overground services between West Croydon and Canada Water, and between Canada Water and Clapham Junction (these do not run overnight).
• London Trams between Wimbledon, Mitcham Junction and the Croydon area (these do not run overnight).
• South Western Railway services between Wimbledon and London Waterloo (these do not run overnight).
• Thameslink services on any reasonable route.

 

Journey planners:

Bus times will be shown correctly on our online journey planners from the early hours of Saturday, 28 January.

Can you tell me more about this?

Throughout the year, Network Rail undertakes maintenance and improvement works on each line. Once each closure is known, Southern work with numerous bus suppliers to hire vehicles and drivers for rail replacement services.    

Unfortunately, national bus driver shortages are causing continued disruption. So, even though Southern know about the need for essential works, staff can't always provide as many bus services as they'd like.

Extensive efforts are still being made to provide capacity, right up to the time when each bus is due to run. However, given a significant shortfall is expected, Southern cannot the full bus timetable - even with emergency requests being made to bus operators across the region.   

As a result, your journey will be disrupted. 

Check before you travel:
You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner

Twitter:
If you would like to follow this incident on Twitter, please use #Chichester

Compensation:
You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.