Home > Travelling to Southampton > Rail and Coach Services

Rail and Coach Services

By Rail
Southampton has good access by train from London's Waterloo station with a journey time of around 75 minutes. Trains run hourly from:

• Brighton (direct every hour) 
• Oxford
• Birmingham
• Salisbury (2 trains per hour)
• Bath
• Bristol
• Cardiff
• Chichester (2 trains per hour)
• Gatwick Airport
• Weymouth  (2 trains per hour)
• Bournemouth (3 trains per hour)
• Winchester (4 trains per hour)
• Fareham (4 trains per hour)
• Portsmouth (2 trains per hour)

Southampton Airport has 5 trains an hour to Southampton Central, with a journey time of 7 minutes, and the Unilink bus service U1 leaves every 15 minutes to the city centre and ferry terminals direct from outside the airport door.

Passengers arriving at Southampton Central station can take the free City Link bus service from just outside the platform 4 exit of the station. This bus leaves every 15 minutes calling at the city centre for the shops and art gallery and stops at Town Quay for both Isle of Wight ferries and the Hythe ferry. The Maritime and Archaeology museums are a short walk from the City Link stop on Town Quay.

Visitors who prefer to walk can leave via the platform 1 exit to get to the Mayflower Theatre, City Art Gallery, Guildhall, Central Library and Bedford Place shops, all within 10 minutes' walk. To reach the Tourist Information Centre and shopping centres, leave from platform 4 and walk up the hill. The Tourist Information Centre and Mall Marlands are about 10 minutes' walk, and West Quay and the Bargate Malls are 15 minute' walk from the station. East Street and Debenhams are about 20 minutes on foot from the Central Station.

The Megatrain offers low cost services to London and Birmingham. Eurostar services from:

• Paris
• Lille
• Brussels
• Avignon
• Disneyland Paris

These services arrive and depart from Waterloo making travelling between Southampton and the near continent easy and convenient. Eurostar services are based at St Pancras International.

By Coach
National Express operates an extensive coach service. There are regular services from:

• Central London
• Heathrow
• Birmingham
• Bournemouth and the North

Greyhound UK  provides a fast and frequent service to London. On September 14th 2009 an hourly service started up  between London and Southampton. These services are provided with convenient kerb-side pick ups at a number of locations in the city, with all services in London arriving and departing from Bulleid Way, Victoria Railway Station, London. Greyhound services also integrate with ferry services to and from the Isle of Wight. All services are non-stop between the two cities, taking under two hours and providing a journey time advantage up to 40% over other coach operators whose services typically stop a number of times at intermediate locations including Heathrow.

Greyhound has become the most famous bus brand in the world. Greyhound UK offers unrivalled product and service quality with a large range of cheap fares starting from £1, plus 50p booking fee, on line. Onboard features include spacious leather seating, free wi-fi, power sockets, air-conditioning and complimentary newspapers.

Megabus provides low cost travel to central London.