Getting to the city
Southampton's excellent south coast location means that travel links by road,rail,sea and air are unmatched in the region.
By car
Southampton is just 75 miles from London and 21 miles from the Channel ports. From the North, London and the Home Counties, the M3, M27 and A34 provide fast, direct road links into the heart of the city, whilst the A36 is the major route from the West Country, Bristol and Wales. From the East follow the A27/M27 and leave at Junction 8. The Southampton Romanse web site gives details of traffic information in and around the city.
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 Reading, Oxford, Birmingham, Salisbury, Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Chichester, Hove (for Brighton), Gatwick Airport and Weymouth with more frequent services from Bournemouth, Winchester, Fareham and Portsmouth.
The Megatrain offers low cost services to London and Birmingham. Eurostar services from Paris, Lille and Brussels also arrive and depart from Waterloo making travelling between Southampton and the near continent easy and convenient.
By coach
National Express operates an extensive coach service. There are regular services from central London, Heathrow, Birmingham, Bournemouth and the North. Megabus provides low cost travel to central London.
By air
Southampton International Airport is situated on the outskirts of the city and is convenient for the M27 and M3. The airport has its own railway station Southampton Parkway which is on the main London line and 5 trains an hour leave for Southampton Central station in the peak part of the day with a journey time of as little as 7 minutes.. The airport services UK and major European destinations.
By sea
Cross channel ferry services by Brittany Ferries and LD Lines operate out of the nearby port of Portsmouth (21 miles) offering fast and regular crossings to the near continent. P and O Ferries run from Portsmouth to Bilbao and on summer Sundays Condor Ferries run a fast service from Portsmouth to Cherbourg.
Red Funnel Ferries provide a regular fast and efficient service from Town Quay to Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
The Hythe - Southampton Ferry operates a half hourly ferry service between Town Quay, Southampton and Hythe Pier, passing by Ocean Terminal (home of the QE2) and linking with comprehensive bus services on both sides of Southampton Water.
By bus
Regular interurban services link to Southampton operated by First Solent Blue Line and Wilts and Dorset and Unilink
Details of all services above can be found at Traveline and links to all the websites can be found on the right of this page.
Cruise liners
In addition to its excellent local and national transport links, Southampton is famous as a cruise port.
P&O Cruises operate out of the Mayflower Terminal in Southampton with cruise liners that include Arcadia, Artemis, Aurora, Oceana and Oriana; a new ship (at present under construction in Italy) the 116,000 tonne Ventura, is scheduled to join the fleet in 2008.
Southampton based Princess Cruises include Golden Princess, Grand Princess and Sea Princess in their cruise fleet.
Cunard has dominated the transatlantic run for over 150 years. The company moved to Southampton in 1919 and over the years its fleet has included QE2 and Queen Mary 2 and this year sees the launch of a new Cunard queen, 'Queen Victoria'
Last updated: 29 November 2007
