South Western Railways - reductions west of Salisbury

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

Edit by grahame - 17.1.2022

I have split off this post and subsequent ones from http://www.passenger.chat/25368 which is a very long running thread concerning the axing last month by SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) of all their services to stations from Trowbridge to Bristol Temple Meads, as this their other service west from Salisbury - to Exeter - appears to have suffered a substantial and unwelcome cut and now needs its own thread


The original post from Mark A:

Can't check their website as it's down, but have South Western Railway ceased running through services west of Salisbury for the time being?

Hope it's not an hour's wait at Salisbury for Exeter.

Mark

[Edit: belay that: seems to be a Twitter rumour...]

[Mark A]

From Monday 17th January 2022 there will be a temporary timetable due to Covid staff shortages.

One of the temporary measures is no through trains from Exeter to Waterloo. A change at Salisbury will be required.

Ah, yes. Not in the National Rail web site yet.

Also 'Until further notice'. Mostly 2 hourly west of Exeter? And a twenty minute to half hour wait at Salisbury. When this happened to the Bristol services, one of the three trains didn't reappear.

[JayMac]

Apologies. Deleted my post as it was quoted. The timetable info within it was posted elsewhere on this board.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=25817.0

[infoman]

Nick Hurrell from the salisbury to exeter rail user group had a small item on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) spotlight local south west of England news at 17:00pm on Sunday.
Talking about the cuts.

[AMLAG]

 
Good to learn that former SWT^▸ (South West Trains) Senior Manager and now West Dorset MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) Chris Loder
(and someone in authority who actually knew and cared for the Exeter to Waterloo line and its passengers) is taking up these forthcoming severe weekday cuts to services with SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) Clare Mann.

I would also now expect Grant Shapps MP to be issuing an urgent 'report to my office at 0900 Monday for a please explain'  to SWR Clare Mann.

[bradshaw]

Interesting to see Nick Hurrell pointing out that very few services had been cancelled in recent weeks. Looking at RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) regularly that was the impression I had. So is Covid really the reason behind the changes?
The result is about 20 minutes wait at Salisbury followed by another 15 minutes at Yeovil, where the trains pass each other.

[grahame]

Background data:

1. For TODAY, here is the journey from Exeter to Waterloo with SWR^» (South Western Railway - about):
14:56 - Exeter St Davids
( 15:00 Exeter Central )
16:01 - 16:15 Yeovil Junction
17:03 - 17:21 Salisbury - CHANGE TRAINS HERE
( 18:05 Basingstoke )
18:57 - Waterloo
Runs every 2 hours, change at Salisbury, single fare £49.80

2. The timetable planner will offer you for TODAY (Single £57)
15:15 - Exeter St Davids
17:29 - 17:44 London Paddington - CHANGE TRAINS HERE
18:05 - Waterloo
and it only offered me the train labelled "1." if I specified "via Salisbury"

3. If you specify "avoid Paddington" The timetable planner will offer you for TODAY (Single £54.50)
15:15 - Exeter St Davids
17:01 - 17:12 Reading - CHANGE TRAINS HERE
18:36 - Waterloo
with alternatives at the same price via Westbury / Salisbury, and via Reading / Basingstoke

4. As a "Control" - here is the direct journey with SWR as it was 2 years ago this week
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrtt20/Table%20160.pdf
15:25 - Exeter St Davids
( 15:30 Exeter Central )
16:27 - 16:29 Yeovil Junction
17:16 - 17:20 Salisbury
( 17:54 Basingstoke )
18:49 - Waterloo
Ran every hour, through train

[TaplowGreen]

- is this a result of the amended timetable introduced due to COVID, other timetable amendments/changes to services, or both?

[PhilWakely]

- is this a result of the amended timetable introduced due to COVID, other timetable amendments/changes to services, or both?

Officially, this is an amended timetable due to Covid, but rather than plan it in the same way as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and strip out just a few diagrams, they have re-introduced the first emergency Covid timetable brought in during the first lockdown when nobody was travelling.

[PhilWakely]

Interesting to see Nick Hurrell pointing out that very few services had been cancelled in recent weeks. Looking at RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) regularly that was the impression I had. So is Covid really the reason behind the changes?
The result is about 20 minutes wait at Salisbury followed by another 15 minutes at Yeovil, where the trains pass each other.

Plus a further 10 minute wait at Pinhoe for some Down services.

[grahame]

I have invited SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) to comment:

Dear Andrew,

It has been brought to my attention that you (SWR) are no longer running 1O58 - the 23:12 from Westbury to Salisbury which you added into your timetable as a tiny compromise when you withdrew all your Bristol to Salisbury (and Waterloo) services in December. As no doubt you are aware, the Bristol to Salisbury train was often a very busy one, and was also the final train of the day into Salisbury from the Bristol direction. There is no "duplicate" GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service that passengers can catch - which is why this service was being provided by yourselves, starting just last month.

I understand that you are running reduced services from Salisbury to Exeter (one train every 2 hours, rather than an hourly service) at present, and that you are running a reduced service from Salisbury to London (one train per hour, rather than two). That will be saving you a considerable number of staff 'diagrams' each day - more than enough, it has been suggested, to cope with staff who are off sick or isolating. It has been suggested that the halving of these services is more about reducing costs than staffing issues - that you have culled and broken far more through services than you need under any "emergency" pretext.

1. Please re-instate for the duration of the current annual timetable the late service which allows passengers to travel from Bristol and Bath to Warminster and Salisbury.

2. Please provided copies of correspondence between yourselves and the Department for Transport to clarify the background reasons for these new cuts - how the decision was reached to make such significant reductions, what consultation with Transport Focus and passenger groups was undertaken, etc - the data that would be available to me if I were to make a formal Freedom of Information request via the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

3. Please provide comment (should you wish to do so) on the changes west of Salisbury (including the withdrawal of most through service to an from London) which can be shared to help passengers and community groups across Wessex understand where you are coming from and what your long terms plans are. There are very real fears that these latest changes are the precursor for significant further permanent reductions like the ones already implemented on your Bristol service, and re-assurance with data to back up that re-assurance would be most helpful to your customer base. The more informed ones amongst us understand that making passengers change mid-journey, slowing journey times significantly, reducing frequency, and having your website offer (by default) higher fares via an alternative route will be detrimental on fare-box income.

This is an "open" letter, Andrew, which you are welcome to share to help illustrate the issues and concerns to your team at SWR; I am also sharing for information to passenger groups of which I am a member and in context at http://www.passenger.chat/25879 . I very much hope that you'll be able to provide a response which is suitable to re-assure your customer base. 

I look forward to hearing

Confirming my earlier post, here is what the SWR website offers me for Exeter St Davids to Waterloo journeys this afternoon:


(Which is a 14.5% fare increase over direct trains that were offered last week!)

[ChrisB]

Journey planners are programmed to offer the shortest journey time, hence with the changes now made to the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services, all journeys are now quicker via GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services and the tube, rather than via Salisbury/Basingstoke - so one needs to force the route choice using the via/avoid option.

Travellers not used to needing to do this will simply think all those SWR services have been (temporarily) withdrawn…along with the cheaper fares. This needs attention & might be something Transport Focus could be involved in?

[PhilWakely]

Tomorrow's Transport Select Committee meeting should be interesting as, in addition to Chris Loder, both Simon Jupp (Con, East Devon) and Ben Bradshaw (Lab, Exeter) sit on said committee.

[ChrisB]

Is this going to be streamed live?

[grahame]

Press release from Railfuture

South Western Railway hits a new low point.

Today (Monday 17th January 2022) marks a new low point in the provision of rail services by South Western Railway on the Waterloo to Weymouth and Waterloo to Exeter routes. From today, on Mondays to Fridays there will be no through services to London from stations west of Bournemouth and on the Exeter route there will be one through train in one direction only.  These changes will force passengers to change at Bournemouth or Salisbury, resulting in a loss of convenience and longer journey times.

“There is no evidence from recent weeks that the levels of sickness by staff from Covid has forced these changes on SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) on these two routes" said Stewart Palmer, a Railfuture director. "SWR have already reduced the attractiveness of these services by reducing frequencies, extending average journey times and the withdrawal of on-train refreshments. They seem to display a cavalier disregard for the needs of rail users. These changes will just drive passengers away to higher carbon means of transport. Rail users and their elected politicians, both local and national, need to make their voices heard to reverse this madness”.

Railfuture is a national not for profit company, campaigning for a bigger and better railway in Britain. It has some 20,000 members and affiliated members in Britain.