Day 3 Southern Daysave Ranger - 19th January

Today was going to be a really good as I would have been using my Southern Daysave ticket. Apart from within zones 1-6 in London and the Southampton - Portsmouth line all route covered by Southern Trains would be new to me. The ranger doesn't kick in until 1000 so I used the FOSW to get over to Portsmouth and Southsea. From there I headed along the coast towards Littlehampton. I then caught a different train to Brighton. Both trains were slow stoppers so it was a relief to get the fast Brighton to London Victoria. I really enjoyed this line (recently covered on Great British Train Journeys on the BBC) and we were soon in London. I had 20 odd minutes before the return to Brighton so time for a quick pint.

Once back in Brighton I caught a diesel unit up to Lewes. Then a swap of train up to Haywoods Heath before catching a train to Hove. This was the start of me long trip home to Plymouth. I caught a train to Chichister and then to Southampton. I hopped onto the Cardiff train and decided to stay on it until Bristol. Glad I did as I saw the HOBC roll through with a winning 66 for sight. My final leg was direct to Plymouth. 

I really enjoyed my day. Lots of new route and curves at 3 junctions covered. Next time I will do this ticket from London and explore the rest of the area. Nice as the route from Southampton is, there are too many stops and slows the train down. One final thing, class 313s! Some of the newly refurbished units are running the Brighton stoppers along the coast. Quite a nice job has been done on them. I caught one from Hove to Chichester and a friend said he wouldn't like to be one for that long. Well I felt it was much more comfortable than a Pacer which have been used on long routes (e.g. Cardiff - Taunton!).


Winners in red 


1W96 (0859) BMH - SOU 444037
2E21 (0944) SOU - PMS 450020
2S60 (1056) PMS - LIT 377328
1H07 (1215) LIT - HOV 377436
2E56 (1254) HOV - BTN 313209
1A09 (1319) BTN - VIC 377430
1A12 (1436) VIC - BTN 377425
1G45 (1532) BTN - LWS 171722
1F41 (1550) LWS - HHE 377451, 377428 
1H32 (1637) HHE - HOV 377452
2W25 (1707) HOV - CCH 315215
1C86 (1805) CCH - SOU 377418 
1F32 (1910) SOU - BRI 158798
1V67 (2113) BRI - PLY 220015


502 miles travelled!