Southampton is a major commercial port and city on the south coast of England, with plenty of shipping on view. Besides the normal diet of container ships and car carriers, a visit in summer is likely to reveal a cruise liner or two in port.  Southampton is home port to the Queen Mary II, currently the world's largest passenger vessel. But there is more ...

Southampton sits on the eastern bank of the deepwater inlet of Southampton Water. On the opposite bank is the small town of Hythe, and the two are connected by a passenger ferry which runs every half hour and avoids what would otherwise be a round trip by road of 12 miles. Because the Hythe side of Southampton Water is shallow and tidal, the ferry actually terminates at Hythe Pierhead, about 700 yards offshore, and passenger continue their journey on the pier railway which meets each ferry. The combined service is heavily used by commuters and shoppers from Hythe, and hence probably qualifies as the world's smallest and oldest operational urban transit train.

Start this trip by making your way to Southampton Central rail station. This is served by South West Trains services from London Waterloo, together with Virgin Trains services from the north of England and the midlands.

Leave Southampton Central station by its southern exit; once outside the station turn left and you will see a bus stop just in front of you.

Wait at this stop until a 'City Link' bus, looking like this, turns up. This is a free bus service which runs every 10 minutes from the station to Town Quay via the city centre.

Remain on the bus until it reaches its terminus, then alight and make your way to the Hythe Ferry terminal.

Make sure you get the correct terminal; the Town Quay also hosts a much more prominent terminal for the RedJet high speed catamaran service to Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The Hythe Ferry terminal is sign-posted from both the quay entrance and the RedJet terminal. You will need plentiful change, as tickets must be purchased from a ticket machine that accepts only coins and does not give change; at present an off-peak day return costs £3.70.

Here is a view of the Hythe Ferry at its Town Quay terminal.

This the vessel (Great Expectations) normally used on the ferry service, which gives excellent views of Southampton Water and its shipping if you remain the open sided central section.

There is a older reserve vessel which you may get to travel on and which we will see later. Incidentally, the RedJet ferries are painted in a very similar Red and White colour scheme, so don't go by that.

On arrival at Hythe Pierhead, you should disembark from the ferry onto the pontoon and walk up the inclined ramp to the pier itself. Here you will get your first view of the pierhead railway station and, if everything is running to schedule, the train should be waiting for you.

The train consists of a luggage trolley, a driving trailer, two other trailers and a locomotive (hidden in this photograph). The tank car to the left is used to carry fuel to the ferries, but is not coupled to this particular train.

If you dally at the pierhead taking photographs, you will miss the train and have to walk the 700 yards to shore.

However that does give you the opportunity to see some interesting views of the passing shipping, including this one showing Great Expectations returning with the passengers the train has just brought it, together with the spare ferry (Hotspur IV) moored up in the foreground.

If you really dally at the pierhead, you will be passed by the next pierhead bound train service.

Here it comes, with the driving trailer leading. The trailers currently in use were built for the opening of the line in 1922; there are two driving trailers and two non-driving trailers giving one spare vehicle.

And here it is from behind, showing a first view of the locomotive.

There are two locomotives (one in use; one spare) and they were built as battery locomotives for the Avonmouth Mustard Gas Factory (!) in 1917. They were acquired by the Hythe Pier Railway and converted to third-rail operation at the same time as the trailers were built.

Arriving at the Hythe town end of the pier, you will see the small station, yard and depot.

Here the spare locomotive can be seen sitting on the depot entrance track.

Here is closer shot of the spare locomotive. Note the way the driver gets to sit on what can only be described as a saddle on top of the electric motor.

At present the rolling stock is in a mixture of a red & white livery and an all-green livery. Judging by the state of the paintwork, it looks like the green scheme is the more recent; perhaps an attempt at a more 'heritage' style.

Whilst you wait for the train to return, a short wander around the corner from the station brings you into the center of Hythe.

There are several pubs and a fish & chip shop here, if you need replenishing.

Here is the train arriving back at the station.

Note the multiple-unit cables plugged into the locomotive and routed over to the roof of the leading trailer car. It would be interesting to know exactly what sort of controller technology is used to allow the driver to drive from either the locomotive or the driving trailer. From the thickness of the cables, I suspect something very crude.

On the train back to the ferry, here is the interior of one of the non-driving trailer cars.

These cars have doors only on one side, with three 'compartments'. Each compartment would seat 6 reasonably comfortably, perhaps 8 at a pinch. With only about 60 seats on a train, a full ferry presumably means some people have to walk.

This isn't anything to do with the pier railway, but on my trip to take these photographs I was intrigued to see this old lady moored not far from Town Quay.

Some subsequent web browsing reveals that she is the MV Douros, and apparently the oldest operational ocean going passenger ship in the world. She was built in Newport News in 1914, so she is even older than the Hythe Pier Railway.

After a long and varied career, she now serves as a mobile book exhibition visiting third-world ports on behalf of a German religious charity.

Maps

• Ordnance Survey Explorer OL22: New Forest
• A-Z Southampton and Portsmouth Atlas (includes Hythe)

Links

• Hythe Ferry website
• MV Doulos website

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Page and all images copyright Chris Wood, 2003-2004. Page last updated on 8th June 2004.