Archive

NETWORK RAIL SOUTHERN REGION WEST OF ENGLAND LINE

Dear Stakeholders,

Lifting speed restrictions on the West of England line. October 2022.

As you will be aware, speed restrictions of 40mph were brought in this summer at locations near Tisbury, Gillingham and Axminster, as the clay-based track bed shrank in the record-breaking hot and dry summer, leaving the rails uneven and too bumpy for trains to run at full speed. This caused significant disruption to services in August and required the introduction of a new temporary timetable between Salisbury and Exeter from early September.

The cause of the speed restrictions on the line is known as Soil Moisture Deficit and is caused by largely clay-based soils shrinking in hot and dry conditions as trees and other vegetation soaks the water from them. They shrink unevenly, meaning track laid on top loses its level profile.

Engineers have made good progress in restoring the track levels, helped by cooler temperatures and regular rain which has stopped the track bed shrinking. We are now in a position to lift the majority of the speed restrictions which were imposed, and as a result, South Western Railway (SWR) plans to restore the regular timetable on the West of England line from Monday 14 November.

We would like to thank all our stakeholders and passengers for their patience throughout this period.

Looking Ahead

We wanted to take this opportunity to give you advance notice of a series of upcoming engineering works within the next 18 months to

improve the railway on the West of England line. Firstly, a nine-day closure between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction between 10th and 18th December will allow us to replace track in the Gillingham area.

Making the most of the closure, our engineers will also carry out station improvements at Gillingham and Sherborne; improve drainage in the Sherborne, Templecombe and Gillingham areas; perform track maintenance in the Gillingham and Sherborne areas; and remove graffiti and clear litter from the line at Salisbury.

Further closures are planned in November/December 2023 and March 2024, with the Axminster, Crewkerne, Templecombe and Gillingham areas all set to see improvement works.

We will continue keep stakeholders updated on these works, along with the associated journey information together with our colleagues at SWR.

Kind regards,

Southern Region Stakeholder Team

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5th September  2022

 Line closure 19 - 23rd September

 The line will be closed between Axminster and Pinhoe for major infrastructure work around the Honiton tunnel between 19 - 23rd September.   Bus replacement services will operate. Full details here.

29th August 2022

SWT has announced that geological problems between Tisbury and Gillingham have caused delays along the route.  From 5th September they propose to run an hourly service from Waterloo to Yeovil Junction and  only a two-hourly service on to Exeter.  The temporary timetable has yet to be published.  Here is the SWT announcement.  

28th March.  SERUG question SWR interest in West of England line.  Nick Hurrell addressed the All-party Parliamentary Group for South Western Railway on 23rd March.  You can download his presentation here.  If you'd like a more detailed explanation to the bullet points in the presentation please email us at contact@serug.co.uk and we’ll provide the speakers notes.

30th December.  SERUG Secretary Nick Hurrell talks to RAIL magazine writer Paul Clifton in the 29th December edition.  You can see the two page article here and here.

2021

• 15th November.  2021 - Through services to London resumed after the Salisbury disruption, and SWR published new timetables which can be found on the Timetable page.

• 4th November.  A link to an article in today's edition of Railway Gazette, and the text of the article, with a very downbeat assessment of HM Treasury's view of railway investment.  Click here.

• 8th October.  SWR has announced service reductions on Saturdays (only) from 9th October.  Services between Waterloo and Exeter are not directly affected, however services from Waterloo to Salisbury will start from Basingstoke and there will be no SWR trains between Salisbury and Bristol.  There are more details here. 

• 2nd October.  The Friends of Honiton Station have published their September Newsletter which can be downloaded here.

• 11th September.  SERUG submit their response to SWR Consultation for December 2022 Timetable.  See our response here.

• 3rd September.  The Friends of Honiton Station have published their September Newsletter which can be downloaded here.

• 13th August. SWR have published a consultation document outlining its 2022 timetable specification.  SERUG will study the proposals and responding in full to SWR.  Our initial reaction is that this plan turns the clock back to 2018 and strips out subsequent attempts to improve the service between Salisbury and Yeovil, with no mention of the CMSP which was published last year by Network Rail, apart from a brief reference to GWR's well in the future plan to run services between Exeter and Honiton as part of Devon Metro.  It shows little ambition to improve the route's service, or improve the passenger experience .  

• 21st July. The Blackmore Vale Community Rail Partnership have published a guide to summer trips on the Blackmore Vale line.  You can download it here. 

• Good news for travellers at Axminster.  The station rooms which were formerly an office are now a pub called The Ale Way.  However, the café on the platform is currently closed, awaiting a new operator.

• SWR to ramp up services from 17th May.  SWR have announced that from 17th May hourly weekday services from Waterloo to Exeter will resume, and there will be additional services between Salisbury and Yeovil.  The pocket timetable can be downloaded here.

• Chris Loder, MP for West Dorset, talking in Parliament about our local railways.  Link here.  (11th March 2021)

SERUG statement on SWR performance.  14th January 2020

South Western Railway Performance shows no sign of improving

The speculation regarding the possible termination of the South Western Railway (SWR) franchise comes as no surprise. It follows another poor year of performance for the train operator, which operates many of the services in our area, including the West of England Line from London Waterloo to Salisbury, Yeovil and Exeter.

Bruce Duncan, Chair of the Salisbury to Exeter Rail Users Group (SERUG) paints a sorry picture: “The previous operator, South West Trains (SWT), certainly wasn’t perfect, but it’s clear that services have deteriorated since SWR took over in 2017. Given that the majority of the existing SWT staff transferred to SWR, with the timetables, rolling stock and maintenance depots remaining the same, the only real change was the senior management and the franchise agreement with the DfT which specifies the way the franchise is run – that is where the blame must lie. Staff morale is at an all-time low”.

Mr Duncan is quick to point out that not all the problems are the responsibility of the train operator. Network Rail, who control the track and signalling have also suffered numerous issues.  “Even without the lengthy December strike, performance throughout 2019 was woeful”, he continues, “Analysis of on-time performance on the Exeter route shows SWR missed their on-time arrival target (89% of trains to run on time) on 271 days last year. Effectively, this means that there’s a 75% chance that you’ll travel on a day when SWR fail to meet their punctuality target!”

Although the much-publicised strikes and staff shortages have monopolised the recent headlines, Mr Duncan believes that the real issue on the Exeter route is the lack of investment in infrastructure and modern trains. Most of the line between Salisbury and Exeter is single track, so trains can only pass one another at the few “passing loops”. One late running train is likely to cause delays to many others.

He continues, “Since 2016, SERUG has lobbied Government and Network Rail as well as the train operator to make the necessary improvements. If just four new (or longer) passing loops with double track were to be installed at Whimple, Yeovil, Gillingham and Tisbury, a step change in performance would be achieved, offering better timetable resilience and faster journey times”.

Mr Duncan also believes that the current rolling stock is now the oldest in mainline service in the country, but there are still no plans whatsoever to replace these 30 year old trains. He advises that SERUG intends to draw up a train specification and lobby to enable cleaner and more reliable “bi-mode” trains to replace the 30 year old diesel units. He is seeking passenger input for the specification.

SERUG’s lobbying has not been without success. The group have been asked to join a study team, chaired by Network Rail, to research investment opportunities. However, Mr Duncan knows that the pipeline for infrastructure improvements is a slow one and believes it will be at least 12 months before any decisions on the Study Group’s work are made. (More details of SERUG’s plans can be found on their website at www.serug.co.uk and on Facebook).

Meanwhile, can rail users expect any improvements in 2020?  “That’s very unlikely”, says Mr Duncan, “SWR have recently announced a new and experienced MD , Mark Hopwood. Clearly, his role is to turn the franchise into an efficient passenger focussed railway. I wish him every success but one can understand a degree of scepticism! Network Rail will also have to improve their performance. Fares rose again at the beginning of January and the RMT union is now considering further strike action in February or March over who closes the doors. Given that drivers control doors on many other routes across the country there is no justification in claiming that this is a safety issue. It seems that the hapless passengers continue to be the RMT’s pawn and will remain at the bottom of their priority list”.

Bruce Duncan

Chair, Salisbury to Exeter Rail User Group (SERUG)

2020

Network Rail has published its November 2020 Stakeholder Newsletter for the Wessex route, which includes details of Christmas period engineering works.  It can be viewed or downloaded here.

Summary of the May 2019 timetable changes

• Three off-peak and return services are extended from Salisbury to Yeovil Junction/Pen Mill.

• Alternating calls on weekday evening Exeter bound trains at Feniton and Whimple are reversed to remove a current performance issue involving the evening peak Exeter – Honiton service and additional calls at Pinhoe.

• Saturdays a.m. Waterloo – Weymouth via Yeovil service, additional Yeovil Junction – Weymouth shuttles with one trip to Corfe Castle via Wareham and the Swanage Railway.

• Sundays extension of further Waterloo – Salisbury services to Yeovil Junction, New hourly Salisbury – Reading service during middle of day calling at Andover with some extended to / from Gillingham.

Download the SWR pocket timetable from here

Download May 2019 changes from here

5th July 2019: Update on Train Punctuality: January to June 2019, by Nick Hurrell

Train punctuality is measured on a daily basis. For the Waterloo/Exeter line, a train is considered “On time” if its arrival is with 10 minutes of timetabled arrival at its destination. The PPM target is 89.2% of trains to arrive at their destination with 10 mins of advertised time.  Sadly, actual performance has been below target every month so far this year:

January:           88.3%

February:        73.3%  (GWR service diversions contributed to disruption)

March:            76.9%  (GWR service diversions contributed to disruption)

April:               83.3%

May:                84% 

June:                81%     SWR Strikes and Glastonbury services skewed the figures – see below)

Interestingly, the June figures were affected both positively and negatively by the strikes and Glastonbury!

The averages for the strike days were good (89.3%), but of course SWR ran a very different and sparse timetable (and PPM is based on the timetable!), So on the 20th June, when the first train from Exeter to Waterloo was cancelled (it started from Salisbury), the rest of the day ran well, so a PPM of 90.7% was reported! Not much solace for passengers west of Yeovil, whose earliest possible arrival into Waterloo was 12.52!

Conversely, the additional services to/from Castle Cary for Glastonbury caused havoc with the timetable (PPM of 56.1% over that period). Trying to run up 20 services to/from Castle Cary per day rather than the usual 6 was bound to be risky, but credit must be given to SWR - at least they tried – and the prices on SWR to London are generally cheaper than GWR, which would surely have attracted a larger share of passengers.   There were also delays/cancellations caused by staff shortages, at the same time.

Train Punctuality for January to April 2019, by Nick Hurrell

Train punctuality is measured on a daily basis. For the Waterloo/Exeter line, a train is considered “On time” if its arrival is with 10 minutes of timetabled arrival at its destination. The PPM target is 89.2% of trains to arrive at their destination with 10 mins of advertised time.

January 2019   88.3%

February 2019  73.3%

March 2019   76.9%

Period of GWR diversions (18 Feb – 8 March)  72.7%

April 2019   83.3%

Since 1st January 2019, the 89.2% target has been achieved on 45 days out of a total of 120 days.

The very poor February figure is mainly due to the regular chaos caused by trying to squeeze the diverted GWR on to the Exeter/Yeovil section. One late train will create a snowball effect of delays for many hours and the timetable is fragile enough, without the added complication of hosting other company’s services. The February figure proves yet again that investment in extra passing loops is essential to achieve some level of timetable resilience.

Feb 2018: SERUG meets MPs and the Rail Minister at the House of Commons

SERUG’s Chair Bruce Duncan and Secretary Nick Hurrell have attended two recent meetings at the House of Commons.

The first, in late February, was to present the Railfuture/SERUG Proposals for long term investment to the MP’s whose constituencies adjoin the line.  These can be seen  below and downloaded below as Presentation and  Proposal.

Sir Oliver Letwin coordinated the group of MP’s and all stations on the Salisbury to Exeter section were represented. Our proposals, which provide major passenger benefits, including better reliability, capacity and time savings were well received. In summary they covered SERUG’s aims as outlined elsewhere on this web site, with track doubling from Dinton into a new platform at Tisbury, and a loop between Whimple/Cranbrook as the main priorities. A further loop between Yeovil Junction and Crewkerne would also help resilience for GWR diversionary trains. Finally, we proposed improvements at Yeovil Junction to allow trains to split and join, which would improve journey opportunities and actually requires minimal investment but simply need the will from Network Rail. The need for new trains was also highlighted. We believe our proposals are realistic  given budget constraints.

Sir Oliver, after consulting with his colleagues, wrote to the Rail Minister, Jo Johnson, supporting our proposals and requested funding to allow Network Rail to cost the work.

Subsequently, we were invited to meet the Rail Minister on 1st May. At that meeting we were informed that he has opened a “window” between 31May and 31 July 2018 to allow proposals for additional investment that do not currently sit within Network Rail’s future investment plans. The MP’s are keen that SERUG’s proposals form the basis of improvements to the Salisbury to Exeter section. We will now work with The West of England Strategy Group (Network Rail and South Western Railway supported) and the MP’s to produce a formal plan which also needs to have support from local Councils and LEP’s.

In summary, good progress, but there’s much work to be done! However, we are very hopeful that our continuing lobbying with stakeholder Network Rail, will finally start to see some real plans to improve services on this line.

Presentation

Proposal

Nov 2017:  Latest Station usage figures to November 2017

The ORR  published the station usage figures for the 12 months ending November 2017. We await the figures for November 2018, which may reflect lower number of journeys due to strikes, Network Rail issues, (e.g. track failures, etc) , poor rolling stock availability – we shall see.

The annual increase in rail usage continued during 2017, along the Salisbury to Exeter line,  up approximately 4.3% over 2016 despite some passengers deserting rail in favour of cars because the station car parks are often full.   Cranbrook showed a huge 340% increase, but with a few deserting Feniton, Whimple and Pinhoe. Cranbrook as a new town is not yet built out (about 30% only). Also Waterloo was virtually closed in August 2017 when the upgrade was carried out.

The really interesting figure is the 58% increase in passenger usage over the past 10 years  from 2006 to 2016

Download the file below to view the individual station usage figures for November 2016 to November 2017: 

Station Usage 2016 - 2017