Once again it is likely to be chaos if you are planning on getting to Southampton by train on Sunday for the visit of Arsenal, not helped by a large number of visiting supporters trying to get here by rail as well.
Every weekend it seems there is railway chaos when Saints are at home and it is made worse this weekend by the fact that it is a noon kick off, meaning very early starts for those coming from a distance by rail, from all directions.
The South Western Trains Website reports the following, although this does not appear to give the full information about whether Southampton Central is open or not.
All lines in the Southampton area will be closed all day Sunday for maintenance work.
Trains between London Waterloo and Weymouth will be replaced by buses between Southampton Airport Parkway and Brockenhurst.
Stopping services to Poole will only run between Brockenhurst and Poole.
Replacement buses will run between Eastleigh and Brockenhurst, connecting with the London Waterloo to Portsmouth via Eastleigh services.
Fast buses will also run between Eastleigh, Southampton and Bournemouth. Long distance passengers for Bournemouth and stations to Weymouth should use these buses where possible.
There will be no South Western Railway train services between Southampton Central and Portsmouth.
Replacement buses will run between Southampton Central and Fareham, connecting with other train services between Fareham and Portsmouth.
South Western Railway services to and from Salisbury will be replaced by buses between Romsey and Eastleigh via Southampton Central.
Great Western Railway services will call at Eastleigh instead of Southampton Central. These trains will also serve Chandler’s Ford.
The above does not indicate on how your will get to Southampton Central beyond Southampton Parkway, although looking at the trainline it appears that there will be trains running into Southampton Central, although the journey time appears to be anywhere between 15-26 minutes (as opposed to the usual 8 mins)
Either way if you are coming via London in order to make the game, according to the trainline you would need to be on a train departing Waterloo no later than 9.15, this would be due in at Central at 11.05 if on time and would mean changing at Southampton Parkway.
Technically you could get the 9.35 getting into central at 11.20, but this would cut it tight to get to the game assuming a 25 minute walk to the stadium and any delays would mean you would probably miss the kick off.
Our advice is to keep checking the trainline.com as well as South Western Railways websites, the links of which are below
https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/planned-improvements/decembe