South Western Railway
 | |
 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Main region(s) | |
| Fleet | |
| Parent company | DfT Operator |
| Reporting mark | SW |
| Predecessor | South Western Railway |
| Other | |
| Website | www |
South Western Railway Limited,[2] trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR Corporation on 25 May 2025.
SWR operates commuter services from its Central London terminus at London Waterloo to south west London, suburban services in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire and Dorset, as well as regional services in Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire. Under the brand Island Line, it operates services on the Isle of Wight.
History
[edit]In the lead up to the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the Labour Party of Keir Starmer committed itself to bring the passenger operations of the British rail network back under state ownership.[3][4] Following its election in 2024, the government introduced the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024, which received royal assent in November 2024.[5][6]
In December 2024, it was announced that the South Western Railway National Rail Contract operated by FirstGroup and MTR Corporation would not be renewed when it expired, and DfT Operator took over on 25 May 2025.[7][8][9][10]
Services
[edit]South Western Railway is the main operator for western Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight, and also serves Greater London, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon.
Most SWR services run on electrified lines using the 750 V DC third-rail system. There is a diesel fleet for services on the West of England line to Salisbury and Exeter, using the unelectrified track beyond Worting Junction just west of Basingstoke, and for Salisbury to Southampton via Romsey services which also serve Eastleigh.
From London Waterloo, SWR's London terminus, long-distance trains run to southern England, including the major coastal population centres of Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. There are also trains to Reading and Exeter, but these are not the principal fast services from London to those cities, which are operated from London Paddington by Great Western Railway. The majority of its passengers are on suburban commuter lines in inner and south-west London, Surrey, east Berkshire, and north-east Hampshire.
As with most rail companies, non-folding bicycles are banned from peak-time trains to and from London. However, these restrictions apply only to cyclists boarding or alighting in the area bounded by Hook, Alton, Guildford, Reading and Dorking, in order to maximise available passenger space on the most crowded trains.[11]
Mainline services
[edit]SWR operates regular services on four mainline routes:[12][13]
- The South West Main Line (SWML) runs between London (Waterloo station) and the town of Weymouth; the route passes through several large towns and cities, including Woking, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Dorchester. South Western Railway operates trains along the entire length of the line. Almost all trains operated by the company start from or terminate at London Waterloo with the exception of a Winchester - Bournemouth / Poole stopping service; these include semi-fast services to/from Southampton and Poole, and express services to/from Weymouth. There are also trains to and from Portsmouth; these trains branch off the SWML at Eastleigh, then proceed via the Eastleigh to Fareham and West Coastway lines to Portsmouth Harbour station.
- The Portsmouth Direct line (PDL) branches off the SWML at Woking and runs to Portsmouth via Guildford, Haslemere, Petersfield and Havant. South Western Railway operates all passenger trains on this route; these include fast and semi-fast services between London and Portsmouth, and semi-fast services as far as Haslemere.
- The West of England line (WEL) is the only mainline route that is not fully electrified.[14] It leaves the SWML at Basingstoke and runs to Exeter via Andover, Salisbury, Gillingham and Yeovil. South Western Railway is the only operator on the line, with most services running between London and either Salisbury or Exeter St Davids. Some peak-time services terminate at various other destinations on the line, including Gillingham and Yeovil Pen Mill.
- The Alton line leaves the SWML at Brookwood (just after Woking) and runs to Alton via Aldershot and Farnham. It is the shortest of the four mainline routes and as such it is sometimes considered an outer suburban route instead (however for ticketing purposes, it is classed as a mainline route). Services usually run the full length of the line between London and Alton, though some services terminate at Farnham.
In total, there are 14 mainline trains per hour departing London Waterloo in the off-peak; this number increases in the peak hours.[13] The majority of mainline services are operated by Class 444 or Class 450 EMUs, except for the West of England Main Line which is always operated by Class 158 or Class 159 DMUs (because it is unelectrified) and the Alton Line which also sees the occasional use of Class 458 units.
Metro and Suburban services
[edit]South Western Railway also operates many suburban "Metro" services in and around London. These all run between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction, where they split into two separate routes: via Putney and via Wimbledon.[12] All services on the suburban part of the network are operated by Class 450, Class 455, Class 458 and Class 701 electric multiple units.
Via Putney
[edit]The main route via Putney is known as the Waterloo to Reading Line. It runs between London and Reading and passes through towns such as Staines-upon-Thames, Ascot and Bracknell. It operates as a fast service as far as Staines, with Reading trains only calling at Clapham Junction, Richmond, Twickenham and Feltham. Branch lines on this route include:[12][13]
- The Hounslow Loop Line, which leaves the main line at Barnes, runs via Brentford and rejoins the line between Whitton and Feltham (with junctions in both directions). Most services on the branch run either between London and Weybridge (described below), or run in a loop from Waterloo to Waterloo via Brentford, Whitton and Richmond (these services run both clockwise and anticlockwise).
- The Kingston Loop Line, which branches off at Twickenham, runs via Kingston and joins the South West Main Line at New Malden. Most services on this line run in an anticlockwise loop, from Waterloo to Waterloo, via Putney, Strawberry Hill, Kingston and Wimbledon.
- There is also a branch line to Shepperton, however, this is only served by Putney trains at peak times.
- The Staines to Windsor Line, which branches off the main line at Staines-upon-Thames and runs to Windsor & Eton Riverside station. Most services run semi-fast between London and Windsor.
- The Chertsey Branch Line, which leaves the main line at Virginia Water and runs to Weybridge. Most services on the line run between London and Weybridge via the Hounslow Loop Line; a few services are extended beyond Weybridge, to and from Woking.
- The Ascot to Guildford Line, which is only served by through trains at peak times; these services run between London and Aldershot.
A total of 12 trains per hour run between London Waterloo and Putney in the off-peak; this number increases in peak hours.[13]
Via Wimbledon
[edit]The main route via Wimbledon uses the slow tracks of the quadruple-track South West Main Line. Suburban trains run along the mainline between London and Woking. Branch lines on this route include:[12][13]
- The Mole Valley Line, which branches off the main line at Raynes Park and runs via Epsom to Leatherhead, where the branch line itself splits into two lines: one to Guildford and one to Horsham via Dorking. SWR runs regular services to both Guildford and Dorking; the section between Dorking and Horsham is operated by Southern.[15]
- The Chessington Branch Line branches off the Mole Valley Line at Motspur Park and runs to Chessington.
- The Kingston Loop Line, which leaves the SWML at New Malden, runs via Kingston and joins the Waterloo to Reading line at Twickenham. Most services on this line run in a clockwise loop, from Waterloo to Waterloo, via Wimbledon, Kingston, Strawberry Hill and Putney.
- The Shepperton Branch Line, which branches off the Kingston Loop Line at Teddington. Most services on the branch line run between Waterloo and Shepperton via Wimbledon.
- The Hampton Court Branch Line, which leaves the main line at Surbiton and runs directly to Hampton Court.
- The New Guildford Line, which also branches off at Surbiton, running to Guildford via Claygate. The line joins the Guildford branch of the Mole Valley Line at Effingham Junction.
A total of 16 trains per hour run between London Waterloo and Wimbledon in the off-peak; this number increases in peak hours.[13]
Other services
[edit]Routes that do not start or terminate at London Waterloo include:[12][13]
- The Ascot to Guildford Line, which runs between Ascot and Guildford via Aldershot. Most services on the line run only between Ascot and Guildford, with no extension in either direction; however, some peak-time services do run between London and Farnham via Ascot. The shuttle services are usually operated by Class 450 units.
- The western section of the West Coastway Line between Portsmouth and Southampton. Class 450 units are usually in operation on this route.
- The Eastleigh to Romsey Line between Romsey and Eastleigh. Services on the line are extended beyond Eastleigh to and from Salisbury via Southampton Central and Romsey, in effect calling at Romsey twice. These services are operated using Class 158 units.
- The Wessex Main Line between Salisbury and Southampton. Services are extended beyond Southampton via the Eastleigh to Romsey Line, as described above.
- The Lymington Branch Line between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier runs every 30 minutes between these two stations. These services are operated using a single Class 450 unit.
- The Island Line on the Isle of Wight, between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin. These services are operated using Class 484 units, converted from London Underground D78 Stock.
Service table
[edit] | Parts of this article (those related to the out-of-date service tables) need to be updated. (September 2024) |
Details of each route, including maps and timetables, are on the South Western Railway official website (see External links below). As of December 2023, its routes off-peak Monday to Friday, with frequencies in trains per hour (tph), include:[16]
| South West Main Line | ||
|---|---|---|
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Woking | 2 | |
| London Waterloo to Basingstoke | 2 |
|
| London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour via Winchester | 1 |
|
| Winchester (and Southampton Central) to Bournemouth | 1 |
|
| London Waterloo to Poole | 1 |
|
| London Waterloo to Weymouth | 1 |
|
| 1 |
| |
| Portsmouth Direct line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Haslemere | 1 | |
| London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour via Guildford | 2 |
|
| West of England line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Salisbury | 1 |
|
| London Waterloo to Exeter St Davids | 1 |
|
| Alton line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Alton | 2 | |
| Kingston Loop line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to London Waterloo via Kingston | 2 | Anticlockwise:
|
| 2 | Clockwise:
| |
| Waterloo to Reading | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Reading | 2 |
|
| Staines to Windsor and Chertsey branch | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside | 2 |
|
| London Waterloo to Weybridge via Hounslow and Virginia Water | 2 |
|
| Mole Valley line and Chessington branch | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Chessington South | 2 |
|
| London Waterloo to Dorking | 1 |
|
| London Waterloo to Guildford via Epsom | 1 |
|
| Shepperton and Hampton Court branches | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Shepperton | 2 |
|
| London Waterloo to Hampton Court | 2 |
|
| New Guildford line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| London Waterloo to Guildford via Cobham & Stoke d'Abernon | 2 |
|
| Ascot to Guildford | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| Ascot to Aldershot | 2 | |
| Guildford to Farnham | 2 |
|
| West Coastway Line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| Portsmouth & Southsea to Southampton Central | 1 | |
| Eastleigh to Romsey and Wessex Main Line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| Romsey to Salisbury | 1 |
|
| Lymington branch | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| Brockenhurst to Lymington Pier | 2 | Lymington Town |
| Island Line | ||
| Route | tph | Calling at |
| Shanklin to Ryde Pier Head | 2 |
|
Rolling stock
[edit]South Western Railway Limited inherited a fleet of Classes 158, 159, 444, 450, 455, 458 and 701 from FirstMTR South Western Railway.
The Class 455 fleet will be replaced by 30 five-car and 60 ten-car Class 701 units built at Bombardier's Derby Litchurch Lane Works, financed by ROSCO Rock Rail for £1 billion,[17] for use on Reading, Windsor and London suburban services.[18][19][20]
By June 2023[update], 42 of the 90 trains ordered had been accepted from Alstom.[21] The trains began to be used for passengers in January 2024.[22]
Current fleet
[edit]| Family | Class | Image | Type | Top speed | Number | Carriages | Routes | Built | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mph | km/h | ||||||||
| South Western Railway | |||||||||
| Sprinter | 158 Express Sprinter |  |
DMU | 90 | 145 | 8[23] | 2 | 1989–1992 | |
  | |||||||||
| 159 South Western Turbo |  |
29[24][25] | 3 | West of England, Heart of Wessex and Wessex Main Lines:
|
| ||||
  | |||||||||
| Siemens Desiro | 444 | _(XAM-E1).jpg) |
EMU | 100 | 160 | 45 | 5 |
|
2003–2004 |
 | |||||||||
| 450 | _(XAM-E1).jpg) |
127 | 4 |
|
2002–2006 | ||||
 | |||||||||
| BR Second Generation (Mark 3) | 455 |  |
75 | 120 | 82[26] | 4 | Inner suburban routes:
|
1982–1985 | |
 | |||||||||
| Alstom Coradia Juniper | 458/4 |  |
20[27] | 5 | Outer suburban services:
|
| |||
| 458/5 |  | ||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Bombardier Aventra | 701/0 Arterio |  |
100 | 160 | 60 | 10 | Reading, Windsor and south west London suburban services | 2019–2024[22] | |
| 701/5 Arterio | .jpg) |
30 | 5 | ||||||
 | |||||||||
| Island Line | |||||||||
| Vivarail D-Train | 484 |  |
EMU | 60 | 100 | 5 | 2 | Island Line: Ryde Pier Head – Shanklin |
|
 | |||||||||
Depots
[edit]The following train depots and stabling sidings are used for the South Western Railway fleet:
- Bournemouth Depot is southwest of Bournemouth station, occupying the approach to the former Bournemouth West.
- Farnham Traincare Depot, in Weydon Lane, was opened by the Southern Railway at the time of the electrification of the Portsmouth and Alton lines in 1937.[28]
- Feltham Depot was completed in 2021; it is intended to provide stabling for the Class 701 units.[29]
- Fratton Traincare Depot is located on central Portsea Island, alongside Fratton station.
- Northam Traincare Facility was built by Siemens in 2002 as the home depot for the Desiro fleet as part of a 20-year maintenance contract.[30] It is located south of St Denys station and is near Southampton Football Club's St Mary's Stadium.
- Ryde Traincare Depot, alongside Ryde St John's Road on the Isle of Wight services the Class 484 units that operate on the Island Line.[31][32][33]
- Salisbury Depot maintains the Class 158 and Class 159 fleet.[34]
- Strawberry Hill Train Maintenance Depot in south west London, was built in 1897, is inside the triangular junction of the Shepperton Branch Line with the Kingston Loop Line, just yards from Strawberry Hill railway station.
- Wimbledon Traincare Depot is located between Wimbledon and Earlsfield stations, on the main line to Waterloo, next to the Wimbledon railway viaduct.
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ @SW_Help (9 January 2024). "Lots of excitement today as our first customers got to experience our fabulous new Arterio trains" (Tweet). Retrieved 9 January 2024 – via Twitter.
- ^ "South Western Railway Limited". Companies House. HM Government. Retrieved 27 May 2025.
- ^ "Labour promises rail nationalisation within five years of coming to power". The Guardian. 25 April 2024.
- ^ "Labour pledges to renationalise most rail services within five years". BBC News. 26 April 2024.
- ^ "Rail nationalisation takes a step closer under Starmer's first major public reform in Commons victory". The Independent. 4 September 2024.
- ^ "Government reveals first three operators to be renationalised after law change". Railnews. 4 December 2024. Archived from the original on 7 December 2024.
- ^ "South Western Railway, c2c and Greater Anglia to be nationalised in 2025". City AM. 4 December 2024.
- ^ "Operators to move in-house every three months". Rail. No. 1024. 11 December 2024. p. 14.
- ^ "South Western Railway to return to public ownership". Rail Express. No. 344. January 2025. p. 11.
- ^ "South Western Railway first rail firm renationalised by Labour". BBC News. 25 May 2025. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
- ^ "Travelling with a bike". South Western Railway. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- ^ a b c d e "Network map". South Western Railway. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Train Timetable". South Western Railway. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
- ^ "Wessex Route" (PDF). Network Rail. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 February 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- ^ "Where We Travel To | Train Journey Planner". Southern Railway. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
- ^ "Train Timetable". South Western Railway. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
- ^ Briginshaw, David (25 August 2020). "First Aventra EMU for South Western Railway unveiled". International Railway Journal. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
- ^ "South Western orders new fleet of 90 trains". BBC News. 20 June 2017.
- ^ "FirstGroup and MTR order 750 EMU cars for South Western franchise". International Railway Journal. 20 June 2017.
- ^ "Bombardier to supply 750 EMU cars for South Western franchise". Railway Gazette International. 20 June 2017. Archived from the original on 4 July 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
- ^ "Depot drivers trained on SWR '701s'". Modern Railways. No. 898. July 2023. p. 88.
- ^ a b "First of £1bn Arterio trains completes inaugural journey". BBC News. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ "Class 158". Southwestern Railway. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
- ^ "Class 159 information page". South West Trains. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
- ^ "17, 25, 32, 34". Rail Accident Investigation Interim Report IR1/2022: Collision between passenger trains at Salisbury Tunnel Junction, 31 October 2021 (PDF) (Report). Derby: Rail Accident Investigation Branch. February 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
- ^ Butlin, Ashley (March 2025). "Multiple Units". Stock Update. The Railway Magazine. Vol. 171, no. 1488. p. 88.
- ^ Russell, David (June 2024). "June launch for modified Class 458/4s". Units. Rail Express. No. 337. p. 22.
- ^ Railway Gazette, 1937[full citation needed]
- ^ "Feltham depot - VolkerFitzpatrick". VolkerFitzpatrick. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
- ^ "City Beam fleet complete as last two trains come into customer service". Southeastern Media Centre. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
- ^ Hardy, Brian (2003). Tube Trains on the Isle of Wight. Harrow Weald, Middlesex: Capital Transport. p. 76. ISBN 1-85414-276-3.
- ^ "Isle of Wight Steam Railway - motive". Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2009.
- ^ Marsden, Colin J. (1987). BR Depots. Motive power recognition. Vol. 6. Ian Allan Ltd. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9780711017191. OCLC 18685680.
- ^ Clifton, Paul (27 November 2024). "New sanders boost braking on SWR passenger units". Network News. Rail. No. 1023. p. 17.
External links
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