South Western Railway will introduce its new timetable on Sunday the 10th of December and will feature more direct weekday services on the West of England Line both to and from London Waterloo station.
During the pandemic, South Western Railway reduced services to almost half of normal levels for both direct and off-peak services between London Waterloo and Andover and Salisbury. Further to these reductions, passengers heading from London Waterloo to Overton, Whitchurch and Grateley then needed to change at Basingstoke with a wait of up to 30 minutes for a connecting service.
With the increase in customers using rail travel today, South Western Railway is now able to see ten services on the West of England line extended both to and from London Waterloo on weekdays as part of its new December timetable.
Further changes to the rail operator’s timetable will also see more services to Basingstoke while Salisbury and Andover will see a return to two trains per hour to and from London Waterloo with off-peak services restored for Overton, Whitchurch and Grateley.
East Devon will see two services extended to London Waterloo, with customers between Honiton and Basingstoke getting two extra direct services to London and customers between Exeter and Honiton getting one extra direct service to the capital.
The timetable changes will also see services heading to Yeovil get an increase in direct services with South Western Railway being the only rail operator to increase direct services between London and the Somerset town, bringing three extended direct services to Yeovil Junction and two to Yeovil Pen Mill each weekday.
Timetable changes to London Waterloo services are as follows:
- 06:20 Honiton service will call at all stations to Basingstoke and additionally at Woking, and will arrive into London Waterloo at 09:18
- 06:41 Exeter St David’s service will call at all stations to Basingstoke and additionally at Woking and Clapham Junction, and will arrive into London Waterloo at 10:20
- The 09:18 and 16:18 Gillingham (Dorset) service will call at all stations to Basingstoke and also at Woking
- The 10:47, 11:47, 12:47, 13:47, 17:47 and 20:52 Salisbury services will call at all stations to Basingstoke and additionally at Woking
- Please note that the 20:52 Salisbury service was formerly the 20:47 and will no longer call at Grateley, Whitchurch or Overton.
Timetable changes from London Waterloo services are as follows:
- 09:50 and 15:50 Yeovil Junction (via Westbury) services will call at all stations from Basingstoke to Salisbury and additionally at Clapham Junction and Woking
- 10:50, 11:50, 12:50, 14:50 and 22:50 Salisbury services will call at all stations from Basingstoke to Salisbury and additionally at Clapham Junction and Woking
- 14:38 Basingstoke to Gillingham service will start at London Waterloo at 13:50 and terminate at Salisbury at 15:20 and will call additionally at Clapham Junction and Woking
- 18:51 Yeovil Pen Mill service
- 19:50 Salisbury service, calling at all stations from Basingstoke to Salisbury and additionally at Clapham Junction
Steve Tyler, Planning and Performance Director for South Western Railway, said:
“We’re delighted to increase the number of through services between London Waterloo and stations west of Basingstoke on weekdays, which were reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“This service uplift means that customers travelling between Overton, Andover, Whitchurch, Grateley, Salisbury and London Waterloo will benefit from additional direct services while reducing waiting times and offering additional journey options for customers at Basingstoke.”
“We’re also pleased to be able to enhance the service between London Waterloo and destinations further west, such as Gillingham, Honiton, Yeovil and Exeter, allowing greater choice for our customers.”
Simon Jupp, Member of Parliament for East Devon and Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Transport said:
“This very welcome improvement in South Western Railway services towards London is fantastic news, particularly for residents of the South West who will have faster and more convenient journeys during the week.”
“The frequency of services is something I’ve raised with South Western Railway and I’ve no doubt these improvements will encourage more people to travel by train.”
Responses
Re-doubling of the Salisbury and Exeter line throughout, and a station to serve Chard, should be part of the South West Trains contract.
What about London Waterloo to Bristol/Cardiff? There used to be a good well used service, calling at Warminster, Westbury, Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon, Bath.
It sounds great, but as the line between Pinhoe and Salisbury is mainly single track it will not prevent delays ,waiting in loops won’t change and that is what passenger’s don’t won’t before putting on extra services they need to be talking to network rail and get more double track installed then think about the extra services. As it is ATM it’s quicker to go up the gwr main line plus there trains are longer and got a better chance of getting a seat.
I wouldn’t bank on the class 701 making it in time for Christmas. As reliable as that new settee !
159’a are the only thing holding WOE line together. There is a fast service from Exeter to Paddington already.
SWR Should do a fast service to Waterloo too, over 3hrs to Exeter to London is crazy and get rid of 159s
Does that include South Western Railway to introduce their new Class 701 Arterio units in service that is to replace the Class 455 and to operate from London Waterloo to Shepperton, Chessington South, Weybridge, Reading, Windsor & Eton Riverside, Staines, Strawberry Hill, Hampton Court, Wimbledon, Epsom, Barnes, Hounslow, Virginia Water, Wokingham, Woking and Guildford services (as well working London Waterloo circular route via Strawberry Hill and Hounslow). And the Class 458 5-Car Junipers to be converted back to 4-Car to operate on the London Waterloo-Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth and Southsea routes.