Fawley line special
On July 28, a South Western Railway train ran along the Fawley branch line, to make the case for reopening to passenger services after a 54-year gap. PAUL CLIFTON was the only journalist on board
Industry VIPs on board as special train makes the case for reopening the eight-mile Fawley branch line.
IF you wanted to make the case for investing £45 million to reopen the eight-mile Fawley branch line in Hampshire, who would you invite onto your train?
Rail Minister Chris HeatonHarris? Tick.
Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy CBE? Present.
Mark Hopwood, interim managing director of South Western Railway? He’s making the on-board announcements.
And Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, estate owner and head of the biggest tourist attraction in the New Forest? He’s the rail enthusiast with a camera slung round his neck.
In fact, pretty much everyone with the influence to make this happen joined the on-time 1000 departure from Southampton Central to the gates of Britain’s largest oil refinery on July 28.
Even the information screen on the recently refurbished Class 159 train showed this was a service to Fawley. That was a first.
Network Rail had also cleared some vegetation for the event - it had been three years since a train of any kind had made it along the edge of the New Forest to Fawley.
At every level crossing (there are ten), local people turned out to wave their support, despite the trip not being publicised at all. Orange-clad, flag-waving Network Rail staff stood at each barrier to ensure safety.
The service stopped at the single crumbling platform of Marchwood station and the passengers disembarked - the first people to do so since 1966. There have been very occasional enthusiast ‘specials’, but nothing like this.
Hendy could not have been clearer: “I think this project has a better chance now than at any time since this railway closed. The track is here and we have come by train, so it’s not a question of replacing bridges and viaducts.
“Unlike other projects, it is just a case of bringing it up to passenger standards. There is a lot of will from Government. There is the will from us and from the train operator. I think this could happen.”
We’ve heard this before. Fawley has arguably the strongest case for reopening of any railway line but the idea was killed off by Hampshire County Council in 2015.
It worried about abstraction of passengers from council-supported bus services on the parallel A326 road into Southampton, and from the council-funded Hythe Ferry which carries commuters across Southampton Water into the city centre. Previous projections of 340,000 journeys a year would not have covered costs.
However, this time the Rail Minister is also supportive.
“We’ve just proved that a train can run down here,” Heaton-Harris said at Marchwood.
“We are standing on a platform where no passengers have got on or off since England won the football World Cup - not in my lifetime.
“It’s a very viable project. And that’s the whole point of the Restoring Your Railways Fund. It has track, and that makes it much cheaper to deliver.”
The Fawley branch line opened in 1925. It was built for carrying oil and workers in and out of the refinery. There were stations at Marchwood and Hythe, with a small halt at Hardley. The final station (Fawley) lies inside the refinery. A platform remains, alongside miles of gently decaying sidings.
As more oil was moved by sea (and later by pipeline), and as more refinery workers could afford cars, services dwindled. The final passenger train was on February 14 1966.
Weekly trains bringing crude oil from the Holybourne terminal near Alton, pumped from small wells scattered across the North Downs of Hampshire and Surrey, finally ended in 2017. Worn-out equipment to handle the trains became uneconomic to replace.
Some trains continue to run to the military port at Marchwood, on a short offshoot of the branch line just south of the former station. Beyond that, the line has been unused.
The route has a line speed of 30mph with lower speed restrictions at level crossings, some of which are still hand-operated. Semaphore signals operated by mechanical levers from Marchwood remain in use. A token is given to the driver to allow the train to run towards Fawley. All this would require updating.
The big change is urban sprawl. In the half century since passenger services ended, housing estates for tens of thousands of people
have been built alongside the line, mostly for commuters into Southampton and the surrounding conurbation.
Up to 5,000 further new homes are planned, including an all-new small town on the site of the former Fawley power station on the southern tip of Southampton Water. Planning permission for at least 1,300 homes was granted the very evening before the Fawley train ran.
The site lies well beyond the railway, with no realistic prospect of extending passenger trains through the high-security fences that protect the refinery, which produces 20% of the UK’s entire oil needs. This year, Exxon Mobil announced a £1 billion investment in increased diesel production at the site. A park and ride site is therefore proposed at the end of the line.
The other big change is in attitudes towards public transport. While local councils in the New Forest have long been more supportive, a previously lukewarm Hampshire County Council is now more enthusiastic. A drive to decarbonise, the urgent need to address local traffic congestion, and the Government’s requirement for Southampton to tackle poor urban air quality all play their part.
The campaign to reopen the line has been spearheaded by the Three Rivers Community Rail Partnership.
Chairman Nick Farthing says: “For £45m, you get the track, signalling and level crossings sorted. You get a 60mph railway with three stations - upgrading Marchwood, a new station for Hythe, and Fawley park and ride (just beyond Holbury, where Hardley Halt used to be).
“Three Rivers commissioned a level crossing study from Network Rail, so we know what has to be done. We’ve used a rail-approved contractor to work out how much the three stations will cost.
“We have identified rolling stock options at a peppercorn rate. We are working with stakeholders along the line. We have identified a depot for stabling, so there would be no empty running on the main line. We can get money in, and in three years we can get the line open for a three-year trial service.”
The practical location for stabling is in the military port at Marchwood, which has littleused sidings. Rolling stock leasing companies have old diesel units going spare.
However, SWR’s Mark Hopwood favours a much bolder plan: “We’d have to take a decision once we knew the line was going ahead. But my personal belief is that we should be looking for a modern, environmentally-friendly train that can use third-rail electricity between Southampton and Totton and maybe operate on batteries down the branch line.”
Pressed on whether that would mean Vivarail-converted former London Underground stock, Hopwood adds: “It could be. Or it could be a conversion of our own Class 456, which will be replaced by new rolling stock very shortly. But I don’t think this is the time to use old diesels.
“It’s a Government decision. We are trying to demonstrate to everyone in a position of authority that the line is here and that it’s operable. We accept that there is work to be done, but if Government wants to find railways around the country that can reopen quite quickly, then this is one of the best examples across the UK.
“You’d have to fettle the track and put in more modern signalling. But within three to four years, that is achievable.”
As part of its Reversing Beeching scheme, the Government has given Hampshire County Council a little money to work up a viable economic case. That will be complete in November.
“I hope we don’t just spend the £50,000 on yet another study,” says Farthing.
“We’ve worked hard on this and the studies are done. I hope the money is spent on getting this up and running. I hope today’s historic train is the spark to make that happen.”
And Hendy concludes: “The reason the railway is worth putting money into is that it creates economic growth, jobs and housing.
“There’s housing coming here, on top of those here already that are not currently served by trains. That is a really significant contribution to the local economy. And the road system here is quite crowded, and congestion is already a feature of everyday life in Southampton.
“The railway is here, so you couldn’t ask for a better case, really.”