INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORT ADMINISTRATION

SOLENT CENTRE NEWSLETTER

2016 ISSUE NO. 1

The January visit was to the Griffon Hoverworks's factory in Southampton alongside the River Itchen. The photographabove shows one of the new hovercraft being built by Griffon to be used on Hovertravel’s Southsea to Ryde passengerservice.

They will replace the existing craft which are over 25 years old and will ensure the continuation of this valuable publicferry link with the Isle of Wight. Hovertravel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Griffon.

A full report on the visit is given in the newsletter.

WELCOME

I welcome you to the latest edition of the Solent Centre newsletter. Hopefully, you will find it of interest.

You will find reports on recent centre events and some local and not so local transport news,

Details of the centre programme for the forthcoming months are also given.

EMAIL ADDRESSES

In order to improve communications to members, I am regularly adding to my list of Solent Centre member’s Emailaddresses so that newsletters, any ad-hoc mail shots, information from HQ etc. can be sent out quicker and more costeffectively.

The last newsletter was sent out to over 45 members by email (over 60% of Solent Centre membership). If you havenot supplied your address, then please send it to roger.brown-iotasec@ntlworld.com

With the ever-increasing postage costs it is vital that Email should be used as much as possible to keep our membersinformed of centre activities and news.

IOTA WEBSITE - SOLENT CENTRE PAGE

The Solent Centre page on the Institute website is now being edited by members of the centre committee. Therefore, itwill be regularly up-dated to ensure that all centre activities (events, reports on meetings etc) are accurately reported.

Can we respectfully suggest that centre members and anyone else who are interested refer regularly to this page for allinformation regarding to the activities of the centre.

SOLENT CENTRE AGM

The Centre Annual General Meeting is to be held on Tuesday 19th April at Lucketts Travel in Fareham. The meetingwill commence at 19.30hrs, this will be followed by a presentation by Mr Steve Luckett from Lucketts Travel on thearrangements for their 90th anniversary celebrations this year.

The paperwork for this meeting is attached. If you would like to be nominated to serve on the Centre committee or ifyou have any matters that you would like discussed, please let Roger Brown know by no later than Friday 1st April.

Light refreshments will be provided.

INSTITUTE AGM & NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETINGS

Solent Centre representatives will be attending these meetings that are being held in London on Saturday 16th April.

VISIT TO GRIFFON HOVERWORKS, SOUTHAMPTON

For the outside visit for January, arrangements were made to visit the localmanufacturer of hovercraft by the River Itchen in Southampton. In 1954 theinventor of the hovercraft Christopher Cockerell teamed up with John Giffordand in 1976 started the business of building hovercraft commercially andcalled it Griffon Hoverwork.

The company was taken over by the Bland group in 2009 and continues tohave the design authority for the original and subsequent British HovercraftCorporation designs together with the unique library of hovercraft relatedknowledge.

We were given a presentation on the origins of the company, the various roles that hovercraft can be put too, thevarious types under production in the factory, and this culminated in a tour of the factory and production lines.

The hovercraft has many applications including:-

Passenger Ferries – Can operate over shallow waters which opens up the possibilities for direct and fast routes.

Logistic Support and Cargo Carrying – Any hovercraft can be configured in full or partially to carry a range ofequipment, from drilling rigs and survey equipment, to light vehicles and cranes.

Hydrographic and Seismic Surveys – The craft can be equipped with survey equipment allowing the operator to carryout surveys in inaccessible shallow water.

Search and Rescue – In shore, shallow and tidal waters and mud flats are ideal for operating hovercraft.

Oil Spill Response – The craft can be a stable and safe working platform and can hover over an oil spill with limitedcontact with the oil.

Engineering Support – A hovercraft can be used in cable and pipe laying in shallow water, let alone dredging work,and can travel at speed over ice and snow.

Ice Rescue – The craft offer an ideal solution to ice rescue with limited risk to the rescuer.

Mobile Medical Clinics – Hovercraft can often be the only solution when sending clinics to some of the mostinaccessible corners of the world.

Military and Paramilitary – Hovercraft can be built and equipped to work in the fields of Border Control, Logistics andTroop Carrying, Medical Evacuation and Humanitarian Aid, Mine Counter Measures, Surveillance, Patrol andReconnaissance, Fast attack and Amphibious Assault.

Griffon not only builds and sells hovercraft, but also carry out crew andpilot training. The ‘driver’ of a hovercraft is known as a pilot and havethe basic qualification as a master of a vessel with the add-on as acompetent and qualified master/pilot of the craft.

This is particularly relevant in the operation of passenger carryinghovercraft and is governed by rules set out by the Maritime andCoastguard Agency (MCA).

The company also offers packages for engineering and maintenancestaff.

Likewise the company offers regular servicing and maintenance and are able to support customers including a full refitservice.

A whole variety of hovercraft are built at the company works in Woolston and can be summarised as follows:-

390TD – capable of carrying 5 persons and easily transportable by road on a trailer, with a maximum speed of 28ktsand a length of 6.8m.

2000TD – powered by a turbo charged diesel engine with a payload of 16 pax with the added advantage of being ableto be reduced to fit in to a standard 40ft shipping container. Length 12.7m with a top speed of 34 kts.

2400TD – a very versatile and robust single engine craft, 13.4 m long and a top speed of 35 kts with a carryingcapacity of 20 passengers of 2.4 tonnes of goods.

8000TD – with a top speed in excess of 50kts, this twin engine craft can carry 56 passengers or load of 8 tonnes.

8100TD – this craft is ideal as an amphibious support vehicle of a passenger ferry. The carrying capacity is for 75 paxand can accommodate a light vehicle (Landrover) of a 20ft container.

BHT Passenger carrying craft – this craft is designed to be used on daily scheduled passenger services and can carry130-180 persons. It has a length of 29-33 m dependant on capacity and a top speed of 45 kts.

The tour of the factory was most fascinating, especially to see the two new craft soon to be on the Hovertravel’sSouthsea to Ryde passenger service. They will replace the existing craft which are over 25 years old and will ensurethe continuation of this valuable public ferry link with the Isle of Wight. Hovertravel is a wholly owned subsidiary ofGriffon.

The new craft have exit and entry points at the very front of the craft, unlike the current models with side access whichrequire passengers to climb mobile sets of steps to board or exit from the craft.

The new craft have all the latest navigational aids and the pilot’s position is a greatly enhanced, together with muchimproved passenger facilities in the main cabin.

We were able to see the 380TD in its completed state and to see how compact and how easy it is to operate such aversatile craft. In UK the RNLI, MOD (Royal Marines) and some Fire & Rescue services operate hovercraft in theirvarious roles and find them an excellent working platform.

This is very important as 90% of production is for overseas orders to countries including those in South America, theGulf, and South Korea. Foreign buyers are encouraged by the UK’s use of such craft and this evidently encouragesthem to place orders, knowing that they are produced to Lloyds standard and will give excellent service whatever taskthey are used for.

The company employs 250 skilled people, and this includes 20 apprentices, across a breadth of trades including, tigwelders, laminators, electricians, fabricators and finishers.

The visit was most informative and very interesting and an especially good start to the Solent Centre’s newprogramme.

VISIT TO ARLINGTON FLEET SERVICES, EASTLEIGH

On a very wet and cold Saturday in February a party of twenty two enthusiasts from Solent Centre of Institute ofTransport Administration and the Gosport Railway Society gathered at the gate to Eastleigh Railway works for a tourof the works. This is the first time a combined tour had been arranged, but it was the third visit by us in 6 years.

We were met by our hosts Norman and Pete, they both work on the premises and are employed by Arlington FleetServices who are the principal occupiers of the 47 acre site. They started on part of the site in 2007 when Alstomvacated the whole premises and prior to that it was a principal British Rail workshop since 1909.

Today Arlington Fleet Services offer high quality engineering facilities with more than a mile of track inside the mainworks building and overhead cranes that are capable of lifting up to 50 tonnes. The first significant event that we witnessed was the departure of a Network Rail test train of three coaches powered bya class 37 diesel out on to the main line and in service. Next we moved on to the paint shop where a ‘Dutch’ class 66diesel loco was being repainted and had received its undercoat for Colas Rail.

As we moved on through the main building, there was a gleaming class 08 fullyrepainted for Mendip Rail, class 57 diesels all completely stripped down andready to be reassembled and repainted for Direct Rail services, repainted stoneblowers for Network Rail, a Mk1 kitchen car having been repaired and ready fora repaint; to name but a few of the projects in hand.

In one corner where were three very sad looking LBSCR carriages which hadbeen rescued from a local farm and were now in dry and warm storage awaitingrestoration and eventual possible use on the Mid Hants line.

There were also six early 2 coach DMU’s of the ‘Bubble Car’ type which oncethey have been fully restored will be running on the Swanage Railway to providemotive power between Wareham and Norden once that part of the line is open topassenger traffic hopefully in 2017.

Transport for London pays for old Underground stock, now long out of service, tobe initially stored in the works, mostly from the Victoria line service. It is thenlater stripped of any useful items, and those are set aside for recycling, whilst theremaining shells are crushed and cut up ready to also be recycled.

There was also a class 58 loco in the ‘recycling department’ ready to be stripped and crushed.

Moving back to the main shed we encountered the wheel sets of steam loco ‘Canadian Pacific’ which is owned by MidHants Railway and is undergoing a major overhaul, with its boiler in the works at Ropley, and the frames in anotherpart of the works at Eastleigh being worked on during the week.

This steam locomotive (No 35028) first entered service in December 1948.

South West Trains and in particular Siemens prefer to use these works for any major refurbishment of their class 444and 450 fleet and we saw a complete unit of 12 coaches in the shed which was there having it's main bearings and drivemotors overhauled.

Outside in the ‘scrapping department’ was the shell of a former RN Sea King helicopter, and there were another 8helicopters in a line by the far fence close to the Eastleigh- Fareham railway line awaiting their fate.

Going back into the shed we found two ex-MOD shunters now fully refurbished and repainted in the distinctiveArlington green and ready for use within the works complex. Going back outside, we back across numerous ferrywagons awaiting attention and refurbishment and final onward sale to prospective customers.

Within the main building there were dozens of Freight Liner flat wagons for containers together with some pocketwagons in various states of repairs which would eventually return to service. There were also several 102t stone hopperwagons in the process of having their bogies refurbished before returning to service.

Possible one of the more significant coach restorations taking place was that of a former LMS inspection coach with allits wood interior and leather window straps which once it is back in service will run with other similar stock on ‘steamdays’ on the London Underground.

Network Rail has sent numerous of their MPV’s to the works forrefurbishment including RHTT and de-icing units. Some of the MPV’swere being converted to allow a flatbed trailer in the mid section whichwill carry an hydraulic crane for track maintenance work. There are now 89 staff at Arlington and 10 apprentices and the wholeworks was very busy and almost full to capacity with all the variousprojects in hand and certainly a lot busier than when Iota last visitedabout 3 years ago.

There are plans to install a wheel lathe which once in place will be muchin demand and be a good source of income.

We wish Barry Stephens the owner and Managing Director every success for the future and are very pleased to see howthe business has grown in the last few years.

An excellent visit which was enjoyed by all!

NATIONAL AWARD FOR THE PORT OF SOUTHAMPTON

The National Transport Awards 2015 has seen the ABP Port ofSouthampton named as the best in UK. The finalist included Liverpooland Hull, but the judges were impressed by ABP’s drive to constantlyimprove operations and facilities with more than £150 millioninvested in the last two years alone.

This award is in addition to Southampton retaining the title asEurope’s most productive port. In September 2015 the port wasconfirmed as the country’s forth busiest port, climbing up one placefrom its 2014 position.

In 2014 the port opened its fifth multi-storey vehicle handling terminal at a cost of £7 million and significantinvestment has been made in to the port’s rail infrastructure to support the vehicle handling business.

The results of this investment have already been proven with the port seeing a 12% growth in the number of vehicles ithandles. The latest figures show that the port contributed £990 million to the UK economy last year, including £714million for the Solent region and also supports 15,000 jobs.

NEW THAMESLINK TRAIN MAKES FIRST TEST RUN

Govia Thameslink Railway took Siemens’ next generation Class700 train on a first test run at the end of November 2015 betweenThree Bridges and Brighton. The 240m 12 carriage train which istwice as long as those currently operating at present passed allthe initial test including its compatibility with signaling.

The introduction of the new 12 and 8 carriage Class 700 trainswill significantly increase the capacity, providing 80% morepeak seats across the central London route, between Blackfriarsand St Pancras where there will be automatic train operation andup to 24 trains per hour in each direction at peak times.

Siemens is building 115 trains for operation by Govia Thameslink, 55 trains in a 12 carriage formation and 60 witheight carriages (a total of 1,140 carriages).

Siemens have already delivered three 12 carriage trains to the new purpose built depot at Three Bridges, all of themarrived there being pulled by a locomotive from the works at Krefeld in Germany through the Channel Tunnel.

The first trains will enter service on the Bedford to Brighton route in Spring 2016, first with 12 carriages units,followed by the 8 carriages units.

HAYLING ISLAND SEASIDE RAILWAY

I thought it was time I looked at local narrow gauge railways and so I start with the Hayling Seaside Railway.

Formerly, the East Hayling Light Railway, this a 2ft. narrow gauge railway on Hayling Island which has mainly diesellocomotives and from time to time the railway hires in steam locomotives from other narrow gauge railways. Itoperates trains between Beachlands and Eastoke Point which are over a mile apart.

It took a 12 year campaign before permission was granted to build the railway. The western end of the line starts atBeachlands Amusements on land leased from the amusement park, but as from 2016 this station will move a fewmetres east on to local authority land as the park has plans to expand the amusements.

At the eastern Eastoke terminus building work will start in the middle ofDecember 2015 to build a complete new depot, carriage and locomotive shedcafe and shop. There are no plans to continue the line further to the east as theland enters a private housing estate and sea is eroding the beach.

Meanwhile to the west there are plans to possibly extend the line through landowned by the amusements estate company and eventually to the Langstoneharbour entrance and the Portsmouth - Hayling ferry terminal. Regrettably theferry ceased operating last year and at present the outlook for the service beingrestored is not good.

The Hayling Island line, a standard gauge branch line from Havant station ceased in November 1963 and althoughthere is absolutely no possibility of its restoration, at least the Island still has its own railway.

There is a walking trail from Havant station all the way to the former Hayling station which is now a theatre and asyou cross on the island at Langstone the remains of the stone piers of the former railway bridge can still be seen to thewest. A good day out could be to arrive by train at Havant and then take the regular No 31 Stagecoach bus to theamusement park, followed by a run on the Seaside Railway and then take the same bus back to Havant which evenruns on a Sunday.

We wish this enterprise, which is run solely by volunteers every success for the future and we hope that the plannedextension comes about.

PORTSMOUTH PORT 2016 CRUISE SCHEDULE

The last cruise ship arrived in the middle of November 2015 andplans are in place to welcome the 2016 arrivals.

There are 35 calls already booked to call into Portsmouth and the‘season’ starts on 15th April with Swan Hellenics’s Minerva.

May will be the busiest month for 2016 with 12 visits booked.Among the new callers is the National Geographic ship Orion. Thisvessel has just 53 cabins for 102 guests and was purpose built inGermany in 2003 for expedition travel. It has a hull that canwithstand ice, and carries 14 RIB's for close up exploration work.

At the other end of the scale, Saga Sapphire is also making her first visit to the port. She has a Beach Club and a crazygolf course included in her leisure facilities and can carry up to 720 passengers..

SOUTHAMPTON AIRPORT'S MODERN TERMINAL IS 21 YEARS OLD

December 2015 saw Southampton Airport celebrate 21 years since the current modern terminal building was firstopened. Originally the airport on opening in 1910 was just a large grass field to the south and east of Eastleighrailway works with numerous wooden huts and was known for many years as Eastleigh Airport.

During the First World War large numbers of prisoners of war assisted in the building of permanent concrete buildingsand hangars together with a hard runway which lasted well in to the 1990’s.

In 1920 the airport land was acquired by Southampton Corporation and the airport was renamed SouthamptonMunicipal Airport and in the Second World War was completely under military control and used extensively by theRN and USAF.

In 1959 the site was bought by Mr ‘Nat’ Somers who ran it as a civilian airport, he later sold out to Peter de Savary in1988 who in turn sold the whole undertaking to Heathrow Airports.

The airport is now owned by AGS Holdings who also own and operateGlasgow and Aberdeen airports. In 2013 this airport was the 18 th busiestin the UK.

Meanwhile KLM announced in the same week a new service toAmsterdam which means a swifter and more convenient connection forthose travelers from the south wanting onward connections say to theFar East and avoids both Heathrow and Gatwick.

This daily service will start in May 2016.

MAINTENANCE WORK ON THE SOUTH WEST MAINLINE

From January to March 2016 the ballast cleaning programme willmove to the South West mainline between Eastleigh andWinchester.

The work will be undertaken after 2100 on Monday to Thursdayevenings and besides ballast cleaning the opportunity will also betaken to do other maintenance work and track renewal whichwould otherwise have needed separate line closures.

The ballast cleaner which has been reported on in detail in earlier articles is an 800m long self-contained maintenancetrain, built by Plasser Theurer at a cost of £41.7m and capable of covering around 600yds in an 8 hour shift.

WHERE DID YOUR CHRISTMAS GRAPES COME FROM?

Did you have grapes at Christmas time? If so where do you think they originated?.

If you live in the south of England they most likely arrived through the port of Portsmouth from South Africa, and thenmade their way on to the supermarket shelves for the all-important pre-Christmas shopping rush.

Crown Sapphire, a specialist reefer ship operated by Cool Carriers arrived in to Portsmouth on 16 th December with1,427 pallets of fresh grapes.

Staff from MMD the port fruit import specialists spentmore than 24 hours unloading the delicate cargo.

Store 11 was chilled to 1deg C to accept the new cargo;whilst the outside temperature was around 15 deg C.

Each warehouse has climatic controls and a vast array ofsolar panels on the roofs to assist in keeping the stores atthe correct temperature.

SOUTHAMPTON PORT WELCOMES ITS LATEST RECORD BREAKER

In the middle of December last year the world’s largest container ship MSC Maya made its maiden call atSouthampton.

The 394.4 m vessel which can carry 19,224 containers is the latest giant vessel to call at the port, she is the largestvessel to arrive at the port to date. She is named after Maya Aponte, the 4 year old daughter of MSC President andCEO Diego Aponte.

The MSC Maya is 59m wide with a draft of 9.8 metres and was completedat Daewoo’s South Korean yard in 2015. She uses cutting-edgetechnology to make it one of the greenest vessel on the sea today.

She is also the first of the four Oscar class vessels to call at the port’scontainer terminals.

Her visit is just another record breaking call for the container port’s£110m new 500m berth which was opened in March 2014.

In October 2015, the port saw the deepest draft arrival in the form of the MOL Quartz from the Far East, followed bythe deepest draft vessel on record with the berthing of the CMA CGM Vasco de Gama in December last year.

CLEAN BUS TECHNOLOGY FUND 2015

The Department of Transport launched the Clean Bus Technology Fund 2015 inSeptember of that year in order to reduce emissions in areas of poor air qualityand local authorities were invited to apply to the department for grants up to£500,000.

The government has increased the funding to £7 million as a result of the highnumber of bids received.

In January 2016 it was announced that 18 local authorities across England had applied to retrofit 439 buses and thisadds to the 2,000 buses with have been so fitted since 2011. In addition to the above the government announced in December 2015 its air quality plans which focus on bringing inclean air zones in five English cities by 2020.

The zones will use charging to discourage the most polluting vehicles, including older diesel buses, taxis, coaches andlorries from entering Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton.

First Bus in Southampton have already introduced new buses on many of their routes which have Euro 6 enginesfitted.

UK BUS OPERATORS ANNOUNCE AMBITIOUS PLANS

Ambitious plans have been unveiled announcing the introduction of contactless travel on every bus in Britain by 2022.

A multi-million pound plan was revealed on 12 th January 2016 when plans were announced to introduce contactlesspayment using contactless cards and devices on all buses by 2022.

The UK’s main bus operators, Stagecoach, First Bus, Go-Ahead, Arriva and National Express are all working togetherto produce a business case which should be completed by late Spring this year. The scheme could see new EMVcontactless technology installed on every one of the UK’s 32,000 buses outside London.

It would offer cashless travel for those who want it and capped pay-as-you-go fares in all urban areas.

The new project would complement the established contactless scheme on London buses.

Government legislation would be needed to ensure contactless ticketing was offered by all individual operators.

The contactless scheme comes just weeks after major operators completed the introduction of smart multi-operator busticketing in all nine of England’s smart city regions with support from local transport authorities.

A similar scheme is now underway in Scotland to deliver the same benefits to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee andAberdeen. Approximately 76 million contactless cards are now in circulation in the UK.

This figure has risen 40% in the past year alone and some £929.8 million was spent in the UK in October 2015 aloneusing a contactless card.

Passengers can now travel between operators in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne and wear, West Midlands,South and West Yorkshire, as well Nottingham, Leicester and Bristol using contactless card payment.

NEW BUSES FOR THE FAREHAM TO GOSPORT BUS RAPID TRANSIT (BRT)

Although the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) only started on 22nd April 2012 between Fareham and Gosport on routes E1/E2(as reported in newsletters at that time).

First Bus are to replace the existing Volvo B7RLE buses used on theroutes since introduction.

The first of the new vehicles started trials on 21st January 2016. First Bushas opted for the Enviro 200 by ADL (Alexander Dennis Ltd). Thevehicle comes with an optimised drive-train and optional stop-start,electric cooling, plus flywheel hybrid option and is lighter than itspredecessor by 200kg.

There is much improved economy delivered by the Cummins engine by up to 35% with improved reliability andsimplified maintenance. For example, the windows are larger and it now only takes 3 minutes to remove any replace adamaged window instead of 3 hours on the previous model.

The interiors are much improved with better access and LED lighting. The ride and comfort for passengers is good andso those using the service can look forward to something brighter and better.

A FITTING TRIBUTE TO CHRIS WEBB

As many of you will have seen the leading article in the last newsletter of 2015 was a tribute to a long standingInstitute member and transport enthusiast, Chris Webb.

It is with great pleasure that we can report that Hilsea, aClass 88DS diesel shunter which once worked at the GasBoard’s Hilsea depot in Portsmouth, which was donated tothe Buckinghamshire Railway Society through Chris’sefforts, is now undergoing repairs.

Hilsea was built in 1961 and she arrived at the QuaintonRoad depot of the Society in 1989 and ran for several yearsthereafter.

In recent times she has been stored at the back of the shed.However, this 0-4-0 diesel shunter is now undergoing repairsand a repaint and will celebrate her 55th birthday in 2016.

Perhaps the perfect excuse for a Ruston Birthday Bash and certainly a very fitting tribute to Chris Webb!

BACK ON THE MID HANTS RAILWAY

After a two year overhaul at Ropley engineering works on the Mid HantsRailway the BR Ivatt 2MT Tank no. 41312 is now back in steam.

The privately owned locomotive has been resident there since 1995 andworks well on both passenger and demonstration freight trains.

The Ivatt tanks were designed to be economical and easy to maintain and41312 is certainly a welcome return and took part in the line’s Spring Gala inFebruary.

THE SAGA OF THE TEA BAG

Sir,

Last Friday, I travelled by train from Birmingham to Cheltenham. Asking for a cup of tea at the buffet, I was told that Icould not have one as they had no paper bag to put the cup in; I was not permitted to carry the cup back to my seat inthe next carriage. ‘Health and Safety,’ they said.

Fortunately, the train guard happened to be resent and he offered to help. So I returned to my seat, closely followed bythe guard, who carried my tea.

From the letters page of the Daily Telegraph 21st October 2010.

FRIENDS OF KING ALFRED BUSES (FOKAB) RUNNING DAY 2016

The FoKAB running days for 2016 are Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May. Saturday will include a typicalevening's service on city routes from 1700-2100. Then, on Sunday, services all day from 1000-1700 on the routes ofKing Alfred and other former local bus companies from the Broadway and St Catherine's. There will also be a largeselection of stalls (Including FoKAB's) selling books, photos, models and transport memorabilia in the Guildhall.

St Catherines P&R will be in use for operations on the day. There is no formal P&R on a Sunday, but the city car parksare free during the event times. There will be feeder bus services to the event as in past years.

Advance programmes are available costing £10. Full details can be found on their website.

THE SPITFIRE'S 80th ANNIVERSARY

Saturday 5th March marked the 80th anniversary of thefirst flight of the Spitfire. Southampton Airport, wherethe prototype first took to the skies in 1936 hosted anevent that both celebrates the iconic aircraft’s past whilstlooking in to the future.

The Spitfire took to the skies from the airport to mark theoccasion and flew over the south coast for local peopleand visitors to see.

Nathan Forster, who is thought to be the youngest Spitfire pilot at 28 and RAF Air Cadets celebrating their 75 th

anniversary were there to see this important event.

As a mark of respect the Spitfire flew close to the resting place of chief designer R.J.Mitchell before continuing outalong the river Itchen to Southampton Water. It passed close by the site of the old Supermarine factory in Woolstonwhere thousands of these aircraft were built, and then onwards to Portsmouth harbour before flying back toSouthampton airport.

Incidentally, a group of from the Solent Centre were at that very site in January when visiting Griffon Hoverwork whonow occupy the site and there is a full article on this visit elsewhere in this newsletter.

NETLEY STATION 150th ANNIVERSARY

On Saturday 5th March the Grade II listed building that is Netley station and the linefrom Southampton to Netley celebrated its 150th Anniversary. South West Trainstogether with a number of local organisations including Southampton & DistrictTransport Heritage Trust with 2 heritage buses were present to help celebrate thisgrand event.

The whole event lasted all day and was very popular and included an actress playingthe part of Queen Victoria who was conveyed in an open horse drawn carriage to theRoyal Victoria Country Park together with the Mayor of Eastleigh Borough. In themorning and afternoon we were also entertained to a flypast by a Spitfire as part of the80th anniversary celebration of that iconic aircraft.

The line having opened from Southampton to Netley in 1866 was preceded in 1856 bythe opening of the Royal Victoria Hospital also in Netley, but build specifically on theshores of Southampton Water.

The hospital was almost exclusively for military personnel from its inception until its final closure in 1963 anddemolition 4 years later. The only parts that remain now are the chapel which is a museum and the asylum buildingswhich are now occupied by Hampshire Police.

Despite the traffic generated by the hospital it was some years before the establishment acquired its own station. Butunder the stimulus of the Boer War, the War Department asked the LSWR to construct a branch direct in to the hospitalfrom Netley station and this was opened in April 1900.

This was a very busy branch and continued to serve the hospital through two world wars and right up to its closurewith hospital trains being shunted down the 1 in 100 gradient.

It was also useful for the supply of coal and coke to fire the hospitals furnaces. Eventually the main line wasconstructed through to Fareham and opened on 2nd September 1889. This then joined up with the existing line fromEastleigh (Bishopstoke) which had opened in 1841.

This branch line has long been lifted but can be walked as a footpath to the Royal Victoria Country Park.

Today the only stopping service is once an hour with trains running between Portsmouth and Southampton. Throughnot-stopping services also pass through on their way to Wales and Bristol run by GWR, and Southern services fromSouthampton to London Victoria via Barnham.

The two heritage buses were running a half hourly service the station yard to theRoyal Victoria Country Park where the former hospital chapel is situated. Both areheritage vehicles and the double decker is of particular note as a Guy Arab IIIwhich entered service in 1948 with the Corporation and was not withdrawn fromservice until 1975.

It is now owned by Southampton City Council and is maintained and run by theHeritage Trust. The other vehicle, a single decker is more recent as it enteredservice in 1969 with Southampton City Transport and would have been seen inservice predominantly in and around the Netley area of Southampton.

It was withdrawn from service in 2003 and lay in the yard for some years before it was refurbished, being brought backinto heritage service in 2012. It has just recently has a complete repaint and looks very smart.

The main 2 storey Victorian station building at Netley is very much still intact and in good order but sadly has lostmost of the facilities that once existed when it first opened. The ticket office for instance is now only open for 4 hoursin the morning Monday to Friday; otherwise customers have to rely on machines.

The upper floor is hired out to a costume hire company. However, the waiting rooms on the ground floor had just beenrefurbished for the occasion and were being used by local model rail clubs to show running layouts and to providerefreshments for the many visitors.

The whole event was well attended by many people including families with young children and the bus rides wereparticularly popular. In all a great local day out!

PORTSMOUTH PORT FERRY STATISTICS FOR 2015

Increased numbers at Portsmouth Ferry port have helped boost the UK ferry industry for 2015. Despite the wellpublicised issues on routes to and from Calais, the growth on the Western Channel routes were up by 3.4% (2.94mpassengers) and a rise in cars up by 5.8% to 990,000 in 2015.

Domestic routes also saw a good growth with both the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands among the topperforming sector for 2105. The routes to France, Spain and Channel Islands continue to be very popular.

Staff at the port were looking forward to National Ferry Fortnight in March and will be promoting ferry travel from‘Britain’s Best Connected Port’ during its 40th birthday year.

LAST CLASS 66 ARRIVES IN UK

The last of the latest order of Class 66 locomotives arrived in the third week ofFebruary at ABP’s Port of Newport in South Wales.

This took the total number of locos delivered to the port to 113 in the last 10years.

The latest delivery of seven locomotives arrived in Newport after travelingacross the Atlantic on the Happy Dragon from the Electro-Motive Dieselfactory in Indiana, USA.

They were then discharged directly from the vessel to the port’s railway line foronward travel to Doncaster. Newport’s railway infrastructure makes it a popularand convenient choice for locomotive shipments into the UK.

There is the ability for them to be lifted from the vessel straight on to the port’s railway line and they are then instantlylinked to the national rail network.

The first class 66 locomotive arrived in the UK via ABP Immingham in 1998 and then shipments were moved toNewport and this class of locomotives have been arriving there ever since.

This particular shipment was the result of GBRf ordering an additional 12 locomotives which increases the fleet to 78.

TRANSWILTS LINE

Since the announcement by the Rail Minister of community rail initiativesthe Chairman of TransWilts has been highlighting the plans and benefits ofthis particular scheme which has given passengers a greater say on railservices in Wiltshire.

This service operates on 32 mile route in the County of Wiltshire betweenSwindon and Westbury, with a single track ‘Melksham section’ betweenChippenham and Trowbridge.

The section between Swindon and Chippenham shares the high speed linebetween Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, which is due to beelectrified as part of the Great Western main line electrification.

The single car service was started in December 2013 and the growth hasexceeded all expectations with passenger volumes reaching 235,000 intwo years. (the forecast was a figure of 218,000 in five years).

Weekend traffic is also buoyant and an ‘on-train’ passenger survey showeda 101% of Monday volume of traffic on a Saturday and 82% on a Sunday.

The passenger growth at Melksham station has been dramatic with a 117% increase in the last year. This overallgrowth has given the confidence to plan beyond the 3 year trial period.

Great Western Railways plans to introduce a two-car service using cascaded stock following the Thames Valleyelectrification. The plan also includes lengthening the platform at Melksham to take three cars, suitable for 165/166rolling stock.

At Chippenham station TransWilts is proposing to re-open the thirdplatform with a passing loop as a regional interchange with the newelectric service.

This third platform will provide an interesting heritage opportunityby utilising Brunel’s original building and better line resilience andinterworking of the diesel and electric timetables. The next stage incontinuing the passenger growth is an expansion of the current 8trains a day to an hourly service.

Some commuter trains are already overcrowded with 98 passengers being recorded in a one-car train.

The single line section shares the line with freight, mostly stone out of local quarries, so there will have to be sometimetable changes to avoid conflicts. The long term aim is to expand the service to Salisbury and Southampton Airportand connections to the south coast ports.

This extended service would also bring Dilton Marsh station (at present a halt, by request with the train staff) into theregional service and improve the present irregular stopping service. TransWilts is also proposing a new station,‘Wilton Parkway’ to act as park and ride for Salisbury and a sustainable gateway to Stonehenge. The future looks goodfor this relatively new rail venture!

CHICHESTER TRANSPORT SOCIETY

Denis Nye, who is a friend of the Solent Centre, has recently informed us that he has been involved in the setting up of'The Chichester Transport Society'.

The society meet at the West Sussex County Hall in Chichester at 19:00hrs on the first Wednesday of each month,IOTA members and anyone interested would always be welcomed.

Their confirmed programme to date is:-

Wednesday 6th April - Presentation by Michael Pym on 'Sir Nigel Gresley and the A4s'.

Wednesday 4th May - Presentation by Chris Austin, 'Disconnected, Broken Links in Britain’s Rail Policy'.

FORTHCOMING SOLENT CENTRE EVENTS

The centre events for the second quarter of 2016 are detailed below:-

Tuesday 19th April - Solent Centre AGM (details given earlier in this newsletter).

Tuesday 17th May - Presentation by Malcolm Carter on his career in the Fire Service and the Removals industry.

Light refreshments will be available at both meetings. Please contact Mike Schmidt if you would like to attend either of these presentations

I would like to thank to Mike Schmidt for obtaining the various and interesting articles for this newsletter.

If anyone has anything they would like to see published in forthcoming editions of the centre newsletter or anysuggestions for presentations or visits, please contact either Roger Brown or Mike Schmidt.

Disclaimer

Any facts stated, or opinions expressed in this newsletter are the sole responsibility of the contributors. The Institute ofTransport Administration cannot be held responsible for any loss or injury sustained in reliance thereon.

Roger Brown, Mike Schmidt,Solent Centre Secretary Solent Centre Media OfficerTel: 01489 690256 Tel: 01329 310365Mob: 07717 016311 Email: mike.schmidt@virgin.netEmail: roger.brown-iotasec@ntlworld.com