SWR - Further Timetable Reductions from 17/1

[Bessie]

Through services from west of Salisbury to London may be returning from w/c 19 February. It was mentioned in PMQs today but BBC's Paul Clifton has had a different response from SWR per his Twitter feed. There are surely sufficient 159s available to do this.

 

[Goldfish62]

Through services from west of Salisbury to London may be returning from w/c 19 February. It was mentioned in PMQs today but BBC's Paul Clifton has had a different response from SWR per his Twitter feed. There are surely sufficient 159s available to do this.

My MP has told me that the full SWR Dec 21 timetable is being restored from that date.

 

[Horizon22]

It seems likely that a lot of brown stuff is going to hit SWR's fan in the next few weeks. Their "get out of jail free" card, blaming everything on staff shortages due to omicron, won't work for much longer, and it will become obvious that SWR no longer has enough rolling stock to run the timetable which will be needed beyond the end of plan B restrictions.

In the last couple of years, they have scrapped the 442s, sent two-thirds of the 707s to South Eastern, off-hired the 456s, let 455s run out of maintenance hours, and started sending 458s away for reconfiguring. All that despite there being no sign of any of the 701s being ready to enter traffic.

Yes the fleet availability is going to be a much longer-term issue than their crew resourcing or they run in parallel (crew training on new stock). Hasn't exactly got a very holistic or planned feel about it.

 

[swt_passenger]

My MP has told me that the full SWR Dec 21 timetable is being restored from that date.

I suppose that is the underlying WTT in RTT for today, before they STP‘d everything?

 

[43096]

My MP has told me that the full SWR Dec 21 timetable is being restored from that date.

So that's a service cut for the Reading line, then.

 

[infobleep]

Through services from west of Salisbury to London may be returning from w/c 19 February. It was mentioned in PMQs today but BBC's Paul Clifton has had a different response from SWR per his Twitter feed. There are surely sufficient 159s available to do this.

Well, Boris Johnson should know. One thing he didn't mention in his response was that the DfT requested the cuts. He likes rambling so one might have expected him to ramble on about that.

 

[miklcct]

My MP has told me that the full SWR Dec 21 timetable is being restored from that date.

Does it apply to the Weymouth line as well? I need to go to Poole on that day after work and the current service is really unappealing, having only 1 single train per hour even in the evening peak, where in the normal timetable there are 3.

 

[Goldfish62]

Does it apply to the Weymouth line as well? I need to go to Poole on that day after work and the current service is really unappealing, having only 1 single train per hour even in the evening peak, where in the normal timetable there are 3.

All he said was that the Dec 21 timetable is being introduced. But he is completely useless so that could mean anything.

 

[444045]

Does it apply to the Weymouth line as well? I need to go to Poole on that day after work and the current service is really unappealing, having only 1 single train per hour even in the evening peak, where in the normal timetable there are 3.

If it goes back to Dec 2021 timetable,then there will be 1 through to Weymouth & return, 1 terminating at Poole & return each hour.

 

[Goldfish62]

Why do you think that people will buy a car (owning a car is expensive unless you are doing dozens of kilometres on it annually on an electric) because of this?

I never said they'd buy a car. They'll drive the car they already own and won't bother returning to the railways.

 

[Bessie]

On the SWR website there are new timetables for some routes starting on Mon 7 Feb. Having looked at West of England timetable it appears through services to Exeter have not been reinstated and passengers will still need to change trains at Salisbury.

 

[nw1]

The current timetable is a mess, with trains just hacked out of its predecessor leaving unbalanced gaps everywhere, and normally-busy commuter routes with a pathetic 1tph peak "service". If the downturn in travel does become permanent, it will need properly reconfiguring back to something like the late 1990s version. But sadly the recent timetables seem to be designed to drive passengers away for good rather than encouraging them back.

Which was actually not at all bad, and perfectly usable. I think a late-1990s timetable would be a vast improvement on what we have had recently. Indeed, if we are talking about the May 1999 timetable, that had pretty-much the same frequency on most or all routes as the 2004 timetable, but at different times in the hour. But even something like the May 1997 timetable (even interval 20-minute headways to Southampton and Guildford out of Waterloo, half-hourly on Basingstoke, Alton and Reading routes, 15-minute even interval to Walton, Weybridge and West Byfleet) was perfectly good.

 

[geoffk]

I've looked at RTT for 14th February and Waterloo - Exeter is back to hourly (the 06.40 from St Davids runs only to Basingstoke). Waterloo - Weymouth is hourly, Poole half-hourly. Shortage of stock is presumably going to affect the London suburban area as electric units are being withdrawn or transferred elsewhere (prematurely?)

 

[Goldfish62]

I've looked at RTT for 14th February and Waterloo - Exeter is back to hourly (the 06.40 from St Davids runs only to Basingstoke). Waterloo - Weymouth is hourly, Poole half-hourly. Shortage of stock is presumably going to affect the London suburban area as electric units are being withdrawn or transferred elsewhere (prematurely?)

Isn't that though just because the timetables are updated weekly so that anything beyond the coming week is always going to show the Dec 21 timetable?

 

[swt_passenger]

I've looked at RTT for 14th February and Waterloo - Exeter is back to hourly (the 06.40 from St Davids runs only to Basingstoke). Waterloo - Weymouth is hourly, Poole half-hourly. Shortage of stock is presumably going to affect the London suburban area as electric units are being withdrawn or transferred elsewhere (prematurely?)

The date isn’t really that significant, because this time next week they may well be altered by STP action again. They only do one week of alterations at a time, as @Goldfish62 has also mentioned, so until they do the next round of changes RTT will show the Dec 2021 WTT services.

So when I checked early last week, the hourly timetable was in place for tomorrow.

 

[Goldfish62]

On the SWR website there are new timetables for some routes starting on Mon 7 Feb. Having looked at West of England timetable it appears through services to Exeter have not been reinstated and passengers will still need to change trains at Salisbury.

Seems to be a mixed bag of mainly later trains on some lines, mainly suburban. The curfew still applies if you live west of Virginia Water, Basingstoke or Guildford!

 

[miklcct]

Why are there only rail replacement buses by CrossCountry on 19 Feb from Bournemouth - Southampton Airport running every 2 hours, and no buses from Brockenhurst to Southampton Central at all in the timetable? Are there completely no service by SWR on that day when engineering works shut down Brockenhurst - Southampton Central?

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Why are there only rail replacement buses by CrossCountry on 19 Feb from Bournemouth - Southampton Airport running every 2 hours, and no buses from Brockenhurst to Southampton Central at all in the timetable? Are there completely no service by SWR on that day when engineering works shut down Brockenhurst - Southampton Central?

Because if you look at the SWR website on the timetable page:

Train Timetable | South Western Railway

Our timetables can be downloaded direct to your computer or mobile phone, giving you easy access to the information wherever you are.

www.southwesternrailway.com

You will see the following: “Journey planners will be updated on a week-by-week basis, with updates taking place towards the end of each week”

So you are still early for the SWR service to appear for that weekend, try looking towards the end of this week as it advises.

 

[Fiyero]

Any news on return to the December (or other) timetable? Its getting exhausting having to plan, replan and then hope! (especially with regards to engineering on top of it all sometimes!)

 

[geoffk]

Waterloo - Exeter still two hourly, broken at Salisbury, next week.

 

[Kite159]

Waterloo - Exeter still two hourly, broken at Salisbury, next week.

Better than having a ~ 25 minute wait at Salisbury I guess. Assuming they haven't just fudged the timetable so the trains have a timetabled wait at Salisbury for those ~ 25 minutes (which I'm half expecting SWR to have done)

 

[444045]

Any news on return to the December (or other) timetable? Its getting exhausting having to plan, replan and then hope! (especially with regards to engineering on top of it all sometimes!)

I was told by several members of SWR staff that the December 2021 timetable will start on Mon 21st Feb with some tweaks to the
suburban service. Rather than asking just 1 person, I asked staff at different locations and all came up with that date.

 

[Goldfish62]

I was told by several members of SWR staff that the December 2021 timetable will start on Mon 21st Feb with some tweaks to the
suburban service. Rather than asking just 1 person, I asked staff at different locations and all came up with that date.

Well, SWR did state on Twitter a few days ago that the full Dec 21 timetable would be reinstated from 21st Feb.

Confirmed reinstatement from 21st Feb:

South Western Railway to increase services as Omicron subsides

www.southwesternrailway.com

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South Western Railway to increase services as Omicron subsides​

Friday 11th February 2022

• South Western Railway to introduce a new timetable from Monday 21 February, which will reinstate services to pre-Omicron levels
• Comes as omicron-related staff shortages reduce, and a growing number of people return to the railway.

South Western Railway (SWR) today announced that it will be introducing a new timetable from Monday 21 February that will see train services return to pre-Omicron levels.

 

[Deepgreen]

Well, Boris Johnson should know. One thing he didn't mention in his response was that the DfT requested the cuts. He likes rambling so one might have expected him to ramble on about that.

There are many things that Johnson should know but he either doesn't know, makes it up on the spot or tries to hide what he does know. It's the clown's way.

 

[miklcct]

I was planning to take that train from Weymouth and make that connection to London, but the SWR twitter told me it was not a valid connection, so I took the earlier train and 'enjoyed' Bournemouth for an hour.

I've just noticed that the train has been retimed to 21:08 arrival into Bournemouth in recent days, creating a valid connection into 21:12 train to London Waterloo. However, the PDF still shows it as 21:13 arrival.

The working has been rewritten to shoot the incoming train from London, which is going back to the depot, into platform 4, freeing the path into platform 3 for the train from Weymouth to arrive at 21:08.

Because if you look at the SWR website on the timetable page:

Train Timetable | South Western Railway

Our timetables can be downloaded direct to your computer or mobile phone, giving you easy access to the information wherever you are.

www.southwesternrailway.com

You will see the following: “Journey planners will be updated on a week-by-week basis, with updates taking place towards the end of each week”

So you are still early for the SWR service to appear for that weekend, try looking towards the end of this week as it advises.

I still can't see anything show up for the next Saturday! I need to work out the timing next week as soon as possible to see if I can get to Guildford at 8!

 

[infobleep]

With all these weather disruptions it would be easy to forget that today is the day when timetables revert back to the Dec 2022 2021 base timetable and the number of fast trains from Guildford to Clapham Junction goes from 3 an hour off peak back to 1 an hour off peak. Winners and losers as they say.

Not that they are recommending people travel today.

 

[miklcct]

With all these weather disruptions it would be easy to forget that today is the day when timetables revert back to the Dec 2022 base timetable and the number of fast trains from Guildford to Clapham Junction goes from 3 an hour off peak back to 1 an hour off peak. Winners and losers as they say.

Not that they are recommending people travel today.

And the two slow trains from Woking calling at Clapham Junction in peak hours have gone as well.

 

[Kite159]

And the return of the 30 minute fester at Basingstoke for anybody wanting the villages served by the Basingstoke - Salisbury stopper coming from London.

 

[43096]

With all these weather disruptions it would be easy to forget that today is the day when timetables revert back to the Dec 2022 base timetable and the number of fast trains from Guildford to Clapham Junction goes from 3 an hour off peak back to 1 an hour off peak. Winners and losers as they say.

Not that they are recommending people travel today.

And Reading loses its peak extras. Again. I just do not understand the logic of what they are doing. Working from home is far more attractive than a 2hr door to door journey home in an evening.

 

[Goldfish62]

And Reading loses its peak extras. Again. I just do not understand the logic of what they are doing. Working from home is far more attractive than a 2hr door to door journey home in an evening.

I doubt if there is any logic apart from operational expediency.

The peak extras were introduced by default simply because the timetable being used was the Lockdown 1 timetable where the peak extras were severely reduced but not completely eliminated. They were removed altogether in the May 2021 timetable and that is what has been reintroduced.