Portsmouth has '˜slowest rail connection' to London in the UK

Portsmouth has the slowest rail connection to the capital out of the UK's major cities, new research has found.
Passengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA WirePassengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire
Passengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Trains from the south coast to the capital travel at an average speed of 35.2mph and take an hour and 50 minutes.

Services in the opposite direction travel at an average speed of 34.6mph, taking an hour and 52 minutes.

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The data was compiled by media company Trinity Mirror, which looked at the speed of rail connections between major UK cities.

Passengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA WirePassengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire
Passengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Its research also shows the route between Southampton and Portsmouth is the slowest major connection in the country - with an average speed of just 16.2mph.

Plymouth, Bristol and Cardiff are the other three cities Portsmouth has its slowest connections to.

Our city’s fastest connections were long-distance services, including to Glasgow (51.5mph), Edinburgh (49.7mph) and Newcastle (48.4mph).

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Nationally the fastest connection was between London and Stoke-on-Trent, where passengers can travel at a brisk 82mph.

A Southern Rail trainA Southern Rail train
A Southern Rail train

To calculate the journey times the company worked out the distances from London stations to the equivalents of Britain’s 20 other largest cities.

Shorter regional train trips were often among the slowest, it added.

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Portsmouth’s fastest connections

1. to Glasgow (51.5mph)

2. to Edinburgh (49.7mph)

3. to Newcastle (48.4mph)

4. to Leeds (41.7mph)

Passengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA WirePassengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire
Passengers travelling between Portsmouth and London faced ongoing strike action by Southern Rail staff this year. Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

5. to Manchester (38.9mph)

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Portsmouth’s slowest connections

1. to Southampton (17.1mph)

2. to Plymouth (26.9mph)

3. to Cardiff (30.6mph)

A Southern Rail trainA Southern Rail train
A Southern Rail train

4. to Bristol (32.6mph)

5. to Nottingham (34.3mph)

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