From the early twentieth century the Victorian opinions in respect of not running trains at ‘church time’ began to carry less weight and many railways responded to the, sometimes very vocal, demands expressed by certain sections of Society for better travel arrangements on Sundays; not only did they introduce or increase scheduled services but they also started to run excursions to the seaside or to inland places of interest and these were largely well patronised. Excursions per se were not, of course, new ideas, having taken place from the earliest days of the railway – for those who would like to read more about day trips Away for the Day by Arthur and Elizabeth Jordan (Silverlink Publishing 1991) is recommended reading.
In more recent times some excursion trains ran so regularly that they featured in the main Working Timetables (WTT), being identified there as such. Planned long in advance, these were a feature of the Southern Region's books during the 1950s and ’60s where they listed the dates on which they would operate. Many came from areas away from what was in essence the pre-1948 Southern Railway and for those from ‘foreign parts’ the WTT included the originating station. Although they would not normally appear in the public timetable, nevertheless advertising handbills would usually be available for a week or two in advance at departure locations and also other stations near the starting point. Other excursions would run on a fairly regular basis although not necessarily to the same destination, particularly those which were advertised as being for Ramblers though not necessarily in conjunction with The Ramblers’ Association – these would generally deposit their passengers at one station with the return journey beginning at another a few miles away. Destinations for these were not confined to places to the south of London, for one was notable for circumnavigating West and North London and ending up at the erstwhile Metropolitan Railway's Chesham station. One did not, of course, need to go walking to travel on these and some railway enthusiasts were known to join them to experience the prospect of travel over ‘rare’ track.
The clientele for the Sunday excursions were not just members of the public who happened to pick up a publicity leaflet, for they might well have been part of a bulk booking by a sports or social club. Station masters and Divisional Passenger Agents were expected to keep in touch with such organisations in their area and drum up custom, especially in the early months of the year when the Secretary would be drawing up a programme of activities. In many cases this would include at least one trip to the seaside – these were actively discouraged when requested for a summer Saturday because of the sheer volume of holiday travel which could be expected. Nevertheless some would insist on a Saturday booking and as an example on one Saturday during June 1952 no fewer than 982 third class bookings were taken for eleven parties to travel to Portsmouth on the 08.10. A relief was run at 08.35 and took 610 of the 982 -–the average number per party was 90. No doubt many of these joined the Isle of Wight ferries at the landing stage below Portsmouth Harbour station.
On the same day some much shorterdistance party bookings were taken including 90 Christadelphians from Wimbledon to Hampton Courtof Morden Baptist Church went from South Merton, on the Sutton to Wimbledon line, to Oxshott on the Guildford New Line. It should have been possible to accommodate all these folk on the regular train sets even if they did have to sit six a side in the compartments. Nevertheless on the same Saturday three additional vehicles were needed at the rear of a Southampton to Portsmouth service to make room for the 250 members of the Itchen Estate Social Club who joined them at Woolston for a day's outing.
