Bit of a pet subject, water transport in the city...
Local water transport in Southampton is woefully underused. Space for getting around is tight—Thomas Lewis Way will hopefully be the last big land-grab for road space in the city—so alongside making better use of what we already have (bus lanes, decent cycle routes, etc.), maybe it’s time to look at something Southampton does have in abundance: water.
A good starting point is the Hythe Ferry. It used to run every 20 minutes, which was almost often enough that you didn’t need to check the timetable. If it ran every 10 minutes, you really wouldn’t need to. But Hythe is just the beginning. With a bit of vision and, say, a few tens of millions of pounds (not a lot, when you consider that £290 million is being spent on just one motorway junction outside Winchester), we could do so much more.
Take Redbridge Wharf, for example. With a bit of limited dredging, you’d have a mainline station with direct access to a water bus network. Imagine boats stopping at Marchwood, somewhere in the docks (probably just useful for port staff, to be fair), Mayflower Park, Hythe, Town Quay, Ocean Village, Woolston/Centenary Quay, the old floating bridge site, Northam (for the Saints stadium), maybe even near Coal Porters, and—again with some dredging—Quay 2000, linking to St Denys Station, again on the main line.
All this could be done with electric ferries, low impact on the environment, no major roadworks, no tearing up the city. It’d be far cheaper and quicker than building a tram line, metro, or probably even a proper network of bus lanes. And it’s the kind of idea that could appeal across the board: clean and forward-looking for those who want modern green transport, and at the same time a revival of a bit of local history for those more sceptical of change—practical public transport that doesn’t get in the way of car drivers.
With a bit more time (and budget), it could go further. Floating pontoons could open up a route toward Portsmouth—a stopping service that might include Weston, Netley, Victoria Country Park, Fawley, Calshot, Hamble, Warsash, Titchfield, Lee-on-Solent, Gosport and Portsmouth. A direct non stop service between the two cities could also run and would almost certainly beat road or rail on speed. And why not rethink the Isle of Wight too? Why should it just be Cowes/Southampton, Portsmouth/Ryde and Yarmouth/Lymington? Southampton to Ryde would be handy. And a Cowes–Lymington–Hamble triangle could be a real asset to the marine industry.
Southampton’s always had a bit of a weird relationship with the sea—too much access to it fenced off, sold off, built over. Maybe it’s time we started to claim a bit of it back.
