Mainline services

Fast and slow services via Woking, Basingstoke and Southampton

High level narrative

From the engagement we’ve carried out so far, we know our customers and stakeholders value good connectivity between the major hubs on our longer-distance routes. To support these customer journeys, and to match capacity to demand on this important part of the network, we intend on adding additional regular services to London Waterloo from December 2027. We’re also proposing to add more targeted additional services to support peak commuter travel from December 2026, and improved Sunday connectivity from May 2027.

The corridor between Woking and London Waterloo is particularly congested, and we know that additional services will add strain on the network. So to balance uplifting the service with maintaining resilience and reliability, we’re seeking your views on when through the day additional services should be added into the timetable. The introduction of these services is likely to be phased, starting with those times of day that bring the greatest benefit to customers. We’re also seeking your views on where new services should call.

Our proposals to improve reliability across the network also include changes to some services through the New Forest, and between Bournemouth and Portsmouth (via Southampton), which will now be served by a direct through service.

Finally, to reflect customer travel patterns on Fridays, we propose removing a small number of peak-only services. To ensure we continue to serve key journeys as well as school and college connections, we’re seeking your input on these proposals.

Incremental changes

We’ve heard our customers and stakeholders and we know your top priority is a reliable service. So we’re bringing forward improvements to the timetable as quickly as possible as shown in the table below:

Monday to Friday: our long distance services towards Weymouth, via Winchester and Southampton, typically run twice per hour throughout the day, with additional services in the morning and evening peaks. Stopping services to Basingstoke (via Fleet and Farnborough) typically run three times per hour – two services terminate at Basingstoke and one service continues to Portsmouth Harbour.

There are 8 “fast train” arrivals at London Waterloo between 0700 and 0900, having called at stations such as Winchester, Basingstoke and Woking.

Saturday: our long distance services towards Weymouth, via Winchester and Southampton, typically run twice per hour throughout the day. There is an additional hourly service to Portsmouth Harbour via Basingstoke. Stopping services to Basingstoke (via Fleet and Farnborough) typically run three times per hour – two services terminate at Basingstoke and one service continues to Portsmouth Harbour.

Sunday: our long distance services towards Weymouth, via Winchester and Southampton, typically run hourly throughout the early part of the day. There is an additional hourly service to Portsmouth Harbour via Basingstoke. Later on a Sunday, Weymouth / Poole services run twice per hour. Stopping services to Basingstoke run twice per hour on a Sunday.

There are no significant changes to the overall service, but we plan to make specific changes in the peak to improve reliability and add capacity, including an additional 1745 Waterloo to Southampton service.

In addition:

Timetabling changes to add extra time at Hook to allow customers to leave the train on southbound journeys (30 seconds to 1 minute).
Additional station calling time at Esher, Walton-On-Thames, Weybridge and West Byfleet on off-peak southbound trains, reducing disruption due to delayed station departures.
Additional service calling at Basingstoke in the morning peak (0634 from Bournemouth)

Across the network, we’re making a number of behind-the-scenes changes to improve reliability. More information on our plans is available here: [LINK to the general narrative page]

Detailed timetables for December 2026 are available on our website: [LINK to the SWR journey planner page]

We’re introducing additional services on Sundays in the New Forest with reduced journey times. We’ll also increase the number of services on a Sunday earlier in the day, rather than the current late afternoon.

An additional hourly service will run on Sundays from Southampton Central to Bournemouth (in both directions), calling at Totton, Ashurst, Beaulieu Road, Brockenhurst, Sway, New Milton, Hinton Admiral, Christchurch and Pokesdown.

Waterloo to Weymouth services will no longer call at New Milton (reducing journey times by 4 minutes. Poole services will no longer call at Totton, Ashurst, Beaulieu Road, Sway or Hinton Admiral, saving 11 minutes, and more closely matching the Monday to Saturday pattern.

In addition, and to improve reliability:

We’ve identified the four services between Waterloo and Weymouth that are most regularly delayed on evening southbound journeys. We’ve added some additional time at Bournemouth on these trains to improve resilience between Bournemouth and Weymouth.

Stopping services between Southampton and Bournemouth are slightly retimed (2-4 minutes) to reduce interaction with CrossCountry services at Bournemouth, reducing the risk of delay in the wider area.

From December 2027, we intend on adding additional long-distance services on this line to London Waterloo and are seeking your views on when these services should run and where they should call.

Changes to services through the New Forest: To improve reliability, we will remove the need to detach services at Southampton Central during the evening peak (1635-1935) and instead will run services through to Bournemouth. This will have an impact on direct journeys to London from some stations in the New Forest and in the Bournemouth area.

Changes to peak services on Fridays: To reflect customer travel patterns on Fridays, we propose reducing the number of services operating in the morning and evening peaks.

Please refer to the consultation questions below, and share your views on our detailed plan for this line.

Consultation on our later changes

Service frequency

Would you prefer an additional hourly service throughout the day (risk to performance) vs more targeted additions at key times (more reliable)?

Option A

An additional hourly service throughout the day

More regular services, giving you more choice and flexibility.

Option B

Extra services at key times

Additional trains when demand is highest, which is expected to be more reliable.

Key times

When would you most value additional services on this line of route?

AM Peak

Additional commuter services between 0630 and 0930

Through the day

1000-1600: Off-peak services, primarily serving leisure travel through the day

PM Peak

Additional commuter services between 1630 and 1930

Evening Services

Additional services after the evening peak, supporting travel after 1930

Additional services

Where should additional services stop north of Southampton Central (recognising trade off between journey time and station calls)? (Airport Parkway, Winchester, Basingstoke, Woking, other)

Explore the 6 timetable options

Review our proposed options for the West of England line and tell us which changes matter most to your journey.

Limited opportunity for us to significantly improve performance
How does the current timetable lead to challenges with performance?
Single line sections on this route mean services have to cross in passing loops. If a train in one direction is delayed this will delay services in the opposite direction. There is limited opportunity for delays to be recovered and therefore spiral thoughout the day.

Also interaction with other SWR and other operator services travelling long distances. Delays can spread.
1 or 2 off-peak hour return journey removals
Summary
Removal of 1 or 2 services between Yeovil and Exeter after the AM peak. The service level remains predominantly the same for most of the day, but with a gap in service in the late morning.
Reasoning
Removing the services provides a “firebreak” during the day where services would run over the single line sections on this route. This gives time for any delays that have arisen during the morning peak to be recovered and gives an opportunity for punctuality to be “reset” for the rest of the day.

This is not a total fix – the fundamental issues leading to performance challenges will remain. This just give a bit of a chance to catch up.
Tisbury, Templecombe, Crewkerne, Cranbrook - remove 2 of the 4 in each hour
Summary
Calls at Tisbury, Templecombe, Crewkerne and Cranbrook reduced to 2hrly all day. Essentially running the plan that is operated in Autumn for leaf-fall all year round.
Reasoning
Removing some calls in the schedule each hour gives additional time available in the timetable to help recover when there is late running and try and prevent small late running spiralling into larger delays that can impact throughout the day and knock onto other parts of the network.
Retaining current frequencies/calling patterns but extending JTs and impact on connections – this will be detailed in the materials
Summary
No change in service frequency, but timings of station calls rotated around by 30mins. Including Woking, Overton, Whitchurch and Grateley.
Reasoning
The Exeter service is currently planned very closely to other services between London and Salisbury, which means that delays are passed onto this service group from others, some other operators which have travelled a long distance. The London – Exeter service often arrives late and the passes delay onto the single line where it cannot recover.

The schedule in the other half of the hour (currently terminating at Salisbury) has fewer interactions with other services, and therefore is more reliable. This proposal extends the current Salisbury train to

Exeter and terminates the current Exeter train at Salisbury.

This option seeks to improve the punctuality of the WoE services when travelling between London and Salisbury, helping trains arrive on time for the single line sections. This does not however, remove any of the interaction on the single line sections which is the fundamental problem with the service.
London–Exeter frequency reduced from hourly to every 90 minutes, with longer journey times for added resilience.
Summary
A service will operate between London and Exeter every 90 minutes instead of every hour. No changes to frequency or calling patterns between London and Salisbury.

E.g. Waterloo departures to Exeter: 07:10, 08:50, 10:20, 11:50, 13:20; Waterloo arrivals from Exeter: 11:49, 13:17, 14:49, 16:15, 17:49.

Journey times are longer due to additional time added into the schedules at stations to support resilience.

Potentially (PLANNING TBC) service level could be maintained under SMD. SMD journeys would be slower, but no reduction would be required.
Reasoning
Delivers a timetable that the infrastructure is more capable of delivering. Crossings all planned in the longest loops for flexibility / performance, more time planned between moves onto single line sections

Current timetable crosses x4 per journey. In this crosses x2.

Additional time added into station calls to help reduce impact of delays
2 hourly WAT-EXD through service and 2 hourly WAT-Gillingham with 2 hourly Yeovil-Exeter St Davids and 2 hourly Axminster-Exeter Central
Summary

1tph London – Salisbury

2hrly London – Exeter

2hrly London – Gillingham

Combined with 2hrly Yeovil Junction – Exeter St Davids

2hrly Axminster – Exeter Central

No change in service Salisbury – London

Stations between Yeovil Junction and Gillingham reduce to 2hrly service

But 3 services per 2hrs Axminster – Exeter Central

Reasoning
Gap in service between Gillingham and Yeovil Junction leaves a natural “firebreak” allowing the service to better recover delays.

Crossing moves planned at the longest loops / double track sections, time planned between crossings increased and additional time added at stations to allow some delays to be recovered.

1L services don’t cross each other, only shuttle. So delays not passed on to other services travelling to London