Embedded Files
The final version of the presentation given by our Chairman at the Modern Railways "Rail in Wales and the West" conference on 26th March can be viewed or downloaded here.
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2nd April 2025. Members meeting summary of findings. You can read or download the update here.
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20th January 2025. Green Gauge 21 has published a report on travel in the SouthWest following the cancellation of the Stonehenge bypass. The report can be found here.
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Our 2024 AGM was held on 7th November at The Raleigh Hall in Sherborne. The Keynote Speaker was Neil Drury, Engineering and Infrastructure Director, SWR.
Neil explained the plan to replace the current fleet of 158 and 159 units by Bi-mode battery electric units converted from the existing EMU fleet, with partial third rail electrification at points west of Basingstoke. His presentation can be seen here.
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26th October 2023
SERUG's Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday 25th October at Raleigh Hall in Sherborne and was well attended.
Chairman Bruce Duncan reviewed our recent activity, the likely political landscape, and our need to define an appropriate vision.
Secretary Nick Hurrell showed performance data highlighting the continued problems caused by the lack of passing places on the route, and contrasted this with the Cotswold line, on which the necessary investment had been made.
Our guest speaker was Matt Barnes, Head of Strategic Service Development, Great Western Railway, who focused on the vision for the Devon Metro and the need to identify specific steps which will bring benefits and bring the vision to reality.
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12th October 2023
Improved West of England Line Timetable from 10th December
SWR have confirmed the improvements to the West of England line timetable from December. This will effectively take it back to the pre-pandemic levels of service. The main changes will be:
The extension of the two a.m. peak services from Exeter St Davids and Honiton that currently terminate at Basingstoke through to Waterloo
The extension of the off-peak Salisbury – Basingstoke services through to Waterloo
Additional evening services between Waterloo and Salisbury including the current missing gap at 22.50
SWR has been able to make a successful business case for the improvements to the DfT and Treasury on the basis of recent patronage growth on the route.
The additional trains will have a number of benefits for both the stations directly served but also capacity pressure on existing services. This includes the resulting increase in frequency between Basingstoke and Waterloo which will reduce both the gaps in services and increase the number of seats available on existing Exeter and Weymouth services.
Other benefits include enhanced connections at Salisbury between GWR services on the Bristol route and Clapham Junction and Waterloo including the recent uplift in frequency from May this year.
See the SWR announcement here
27th September 2022
Our AGM meeting on 22nd September was well attended and proved to be a constructive forum for SERUG, South Western Railway and Network Rail to discuss their views and plans.
Claire Mann, Managing Director of South Western Railway and Mark Killick, Network Rail's Route Manager for Wessex lines were guest speakers.
SERUG's Briefing covering recent performance of the line and our priorities can be found here.
Our summary of the presentations and discussions can be found here.
Matt Barnes GWR at the October 2023 AGM
SERUG AGM
SERUG AGM
Bruce Duncan, Chair of SERUG introduces Claire Mann, Managing Director of South Western Railway and Mark Killick, Network Rail's Route Manager for Wessex lines
Network Rail Study The Continuous Modular Strategic Plan (CMSP) is Published
Network Rail Study The Continuous Modular Strategic Plan (CMSP) is Published
Network Rail have published a strategic document for the future of the Salisbury to Exeter route. SERUG strongly supports this initiative. It's a long document some of which is highly technical, however the Executive Summary provides a good overview.
Network Rail have published a strategic document for the future of the Salisbury to Exeter route. SERUG strongly supports this initiative. It's a long document some of which is highly technical, however the Executive Summary provides a good overview.
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Passenger Usage 2018 - 2019
Passenger Usage 2018 - 2019
Given the degree of disruption to the line it's not surprising to find that passenger numbers between Salisbury and Exeter have fallen between 2017 - 2018 and 2018 - 2019, using April to March data.
With the exceptions of the newish station at Cranbrook and Pinhoe, every station has lost passengers, over 200,000 in total. That's around 550 passengers per day.
This data includes Exeter Central and Salisbury at which some passengers are not using the West of England route, however it's a serious step back from many years of steady growth.
The October 2020 edition of Modern Railways magazine carries a report on plans to improve the line.
The October 2020 edition of Modern Railways magazine carries a report on plans to improve the line.
PPM data for January to November 2019. Report by Nick Hurrell
PPM data for January to November 2019. Report by Nick Hurrell
Once again the PPM timekeeping report makes very unhappy reading. November (at 55.6%) was by far the worst month of the year, with the target being achieved on just one day. The data is in PDF format here.
The PPM (Public Performance Measure) is just one of the measures used to evaluate Train Operator performance – but it is probably the most widely used and understood. For South Western Railway (West of England line) the target is for 89.2% of all trains to arrive at their final destination within 5 minutes of schedule – it’s normally measured monthly.
Sadly, the monthly target has not been achieved for over two years now. The average so far this year sits at 77.2%, well below the National Average of 87.7% - which, let’s face it, isn’t great either! One might think that the December Strikes, for which SWR have an agreement that they will be measured against their reduced timetable, might meet the target, given that there’s less to go wrong. But no, the average so far this month (1-11 December) is still only 77%.
Christian Wolmar at Yeovil Railway Centre, 26th September 2019
Christian Wolmar at Yeovil Railway Centre, 26th September 2019
Nick Hurrell reports:
Over 40 members and SERUG supporters attended a talk by Christian Wolmar about the current state of Britain’s Railways on Thursday 26 September. Although he may think of himself as “just another hack” (his own words), he is far more than that…a renowned railway journalist, historian, political commentator and also a very entertaining speaker.
The event started with brief updates from Bruce Duncan (SERUG Chair) and Andrew Ardley (SWR Business Development manager) on matters relating to the West of England line. It is pleasing to see that SERUG is now a recognised lobbying voice, with our views passenger improvements widely recognised and understood. SWR and Network Rail are now working with us, local councils and TravelWatch Southwest to design an improved timetable, with faster and more resilient journey times, which will identify where additional infrastructure improvements, such as passing loops, are required. Investment isn’t guaranteed, but we are moving forward.
Christian Wolmar’s talk concentrated initially on the history and development of the current CrossRail project – unsurprising as he has just written and published a book on the subject. He described the history of east/west travel across London, from the original Turnpikes to development of London Undergound’s original Central Line, right up to the present day, with the eagerly awaited opening of CrossRail.
He strongly believes that CrossRail will transform east/west travel across the capital, stressing that the “Elizabeth Line” is not an underground line, rather a mainline railway running underneath London, built to mainline loading gauge (not the narrower 12ft loading gauge of the deep tube lines).
He also highlighted that CrossRail is a good example of everything that is both right and wrong with our railways. The delays in its opening are (in his view) simply down to a major under-estimation of the time and costs required for the fit-out process. With the tunnelling completed virtually on time, it was thought that the fit-out of stations, signalling, etc, would be simple task. It clearly hasn’t been. Christian is also frustrated that his book on CrossRail isn’t really finished – it will need to be edited when the line finally opens!
The discussion turned to wider issues, such as the need for better integration of our rail bodies, where Network Rail needs to be (he’s a strong supporter of new NWR chief Andrew Haines) and of course HS2 (cynical and would rather the money is spent on better local tram networks, but doesn’t believe it will be cancelled).
Christian Wolmar doesn’t mince his words – and they are words well researched. The rousing round of applause at the end of his talk was well deserved.
Nick Hurrell, Secretary.
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