Southern To Announce 3 Car Trains

MarshLink trains

There has been much consternation about the MarshLink services operated by Southern Railways over the last couple of years since the arrival of Covid but there is one current issue of concern – the stock operating on the line and apparent reduction in capacity.

In general, for many years the MarshLink was serviced by 2-car units (and, similarly, we had a very popular peak hours Shuttle service): with the arrival of Covid our services (but without a peak hours Shuttle) were operated by 4-car units fairly consistently until very recently when we started to see 2-car units again. It is not surprising that this unannounced change has attracted concern.

Southern Railway has said (but we await a formal announcement) that their intention, on a long- term basis, is to run 3-car units on the MarshLink rather than returning to the 2-car units which ran before Covid. However, it is not expected that the Shuttle service will be reinstated until a need can be demonstrated.

The work required to change the formation of the units is expected to be completed within this year so probably by the time the new timetable comes into effect in December.

MarshLink Action Group (“MLAG”) hopes to arrange a general meeting to enable train users to raise their own questions about the future rail service and we will announce a date to members when this has been arranged.

Stuart Harland

Chairman, MLAG

As an addition to the above we are aware and concerned that the service over recent weeks has not been satisfactory with too many delays and cancellations. we continue to express our concerns to Southern in conjunction with other local user groups and it is obvious that any cancellation has a major effect on the service which is in any event only hourly.