Loss of early and late trains at Weymouth

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Dorset Echo

CUTS to summer rail services between Weymouth and Waterloo will do little for the area’s economy as it struggles out of pandemic.

Portland councillor Paul Kimber says the new timetable from mid-May will return to hourly services with the loss of some early and late trains.

He says that for many, needing to get to Southampton or London for morning meetings, or home from a West End show, will be forced to drive because there will be no alternative.

Cllr Kimber told an online Dorset Council meeting on Thursday evening that the changes would also impact the authority’s declarations on climate change with one of its policies to increase the use of public transport and reduce car use.

“The new timetable for Monday to Friday, starting on 17th May will be hourly with the loss of early morning trains and late trains from Waterloo to Weymouth, although it will be a through service. We have lost early morning trains from Weymouth and the 2135 from Waterloo to Weymouth.

“I have received complaints about the new rail timetable from passengers to Weymouth to Waterloo.  Passengers are concerned that many of our trains on the new timetable have been cut resulting in less trains with off peak travel reduced.

“I also understand from travellers to Southampton will have to revert to using their cars and this must be an issue right across Dorset for people working in Southampton wanting to travel back after 2200,” he said.

Council transport and climate change portfolio holder Cllr Ray Bryan said he was concerned by the changes, but understood the situation because of a reduction in passenger numbers brought about by Covid.

Not sure if that is cuts, or failure to restore?

But - seriously - there's a real difference between reducing a 30 minute service to an hourly one (which, for journey times of an hour, plus, people will grumble at but probably accept) and cutting the early and late services out so that there is no longer the capability of making the journey by train, even if having to go out half an hour earlier, or be back home half an hour later.

[didcotdean]

Under the current timetable the earliest train from Weymouth is the 06:25, arriving 09:25.

From 19 May the earliest train is 06:55, arriving 09:53.

What has been cut out is the more limited stop service through the day making the journey length around 3 hours with 9-11 stops between Weymouth and Bournemouth alone. Plus 5 stops between Bournemouth and Southampton rather than 1.

[grahame]

Under the current timetable the earliest train from Weymouth is the 06:25, arriving 09:25.

From 19 May the earliest train is 06:55, arriving 09:53.

But under the timetable that was running until the first lockdown in March of last year, the first service from Weymouth ran at 05:55, with a Waterloo arrival 0f 08:50 - see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrtt20/Table%20158.pdf .

Final return train was at 21:35 from Waterloo, arriving Weymouth 00:23.   Looks like that will be the 20:25 from Waterloo, arriving 23:20 into Weymouth, this summer.

[ChrisB]

Realistically, even 2135 was too early to use it after an evening show in London, although possibly late enough from Siuthampton for a show.

[didcotdean]

I guess the disappointment is that the service provision has taken another notch downwards where there might have been an expectation that it would have gone back up more to what it had been, even if this was not realistic. The early services have gone with the reduction of London meetings I guess.

I lived in Weymouth for 8 years and wouldn't have considered it the ideal location to live for making day trips to London shows by train, unless it was a matinee. The curiosity for me is that the journey time of around 3 hours is more or less back to what it was prior to electrifying Weymouth-Bournemouth. The main contributor to that is all the additional stops now made after Bournemouth.

[Lee]

What would interest me is whether these cuts are isolated to the Weymouth route, or whether similar cuts are occuring elsewhere across the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) network.

What I remember from the Jacobs business case reports that informed the infamous Draft FGW^▸ (First Great Western) December 2006 Timetable was that levels of savings were to be found in 3 distinct phased packages:

1) Low hanging fruit such as early/late services.

2) Deeper service cuts.

3) Full closures and service withdrawals.

The FGW 2006 cuts ran through to Phase 2 - although you could argue it bordered on Phase 3 at places like Melksham and Pilning - and the SWR Weymouth changes also appear to run through to Phase 2 with the removal of the daytime limited stop services, so it would be interesting to see if that were part of a wider network pattern as well.

Of course, nobody has mentioned the elephant in the room from the part of the article that grahame didnt quote:

Similar cuts to service are also expected on the Bristol to Weymouth line although Network Rail’s website currently shows no details for either summer service – stating that the timetable will be published when it becomes available.

Rather less meat available to cut off that particular bone, methinks.

[Surrey 455]

What would interest me is whether these cuts are isolated to the Weymouth route, or whether similar cuts are occuring elsewhere across the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) network.

I am hoping that the results on the National Rail journey Planner for 17th May are incomplete and yet to be finalised.
A search suggests that my commute to work from Bookham to Waterloo is still hourly but timings will be shifted by about 30 minutes. I will have to get up 30 minutes earlier if these times are correct. There was a plan for a 15 minute AM peak service pre covid.