Timetable changes proposed by Southern Railway increasing travel time to Southampton, Gatwick and London from Portsmouth "not sensible"

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson said proposals included in the train operator’s new consultation would take the city’s rail services back to Victorian times.

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“The proposals from Southern mean that journeys from Portsmouth to Southampton are longer, the journey from Portsmouth to Gatwick is longer and the Portsmouth to London journey is longer,” he said, speaking at his Friday (August 18) decision meeting.

“We’re trying to increase the use of public transport as a viable alternative to the car and making journeys longer – they’ve probably not been this long since Victorian times – is not a sensible way of moving. People in Portsmouth are going to be getting a worse service.”

Announcing its “timetable redesign” earlier this month, Southern Railway, which is operated by Govia Thameslink Railway, said the changes would make services more reliable.

It said the West Coastway service was regularly running behind schedule due to short turnaround times in Portsmouth and Southampton, meaning the service was frequently terminating early at either Fareham or Fratton.

The consultation proposes the withdrawal of the all stations hourly service between Portsmouth Harbour and Littlehampton, which is the least used of its services and the direct link between Portsmouth and Brighton.

As part of this, a half-hourly service from Portsmouth Harbour to London Victoria via Gatwick Airport will be introduced and this will also maintain the direct service from stations between Havant and Chichester and Emsworth.

“We’re confident that the reliability and capacity improvements these proposals are designed to achieve would benefit passengers on local and longer-distance journeys across the West Coastway,” Govia Thameslink Railway’s customer service director, Jenny Saunders, said.

However, the council said the extra stops would make journeys longer, particularly to Gatwick Airport which will now be slower than by car.

The consultation runs until September 27.

At Friday’s meeting, Cllr Vernon-Jackson also criticised South Western Railway proposals to remove ticket offices from all its stations, describing it as “a very retograde step”.

“It’s going to mean that people won’t be able to pay with cash and we know that there are large numbers of people who don’t have bank accounts,” he said. “There’s also a considerable concern that some fares are only available online and that people who we would like to tempt onto trains are now frightened of doing so.”

A decision on this controversial proposal will be made by ministers next year.