South Western Railways Waterloo - Bristol services axed

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Now that GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) is responsible for the former franchise of SW[TR], is it time for them to be Great British and consider restoring the through services from London via the County Town of Wiltshire - the nearest county town to London without a through train from the capital.

[IndustryInsider]

GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) isn’t responsible for SWR^» (South Western Railway - about).  The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) are.  And wasn’t it them that mandated their removal in the first place?

[TaplowGreen]

I think the message for this and all aspects of "renationalisation" should be "manage your expectations".

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/great-british-railways-south-western-london-waterloo-b2756798.html

[Mark A]

That'll need a return to the likes of the pre-2018 SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) culture - in those times it was meeting people's travel needs, had a healthy set of destinations, passenger numbers on the service were trending upwards, with encouragement from the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) and plans to grow the service.

Industrial relation woes, plus a change of franchise with a new MD with their heart in mass transit for big cities has left the SWR services west of Basingstoke in a curious situation and I wonder how (or if) they will be pulled together.

The road network isn't good, rail has plenty of potential and particularly to the South West there's a lot of suppressed demand, but without political pressure, will we just see the likes of 'Until the service improves we're not going to give you any breathing space to develop'? This at a time that Covid caused the service to contract along with the revenue - and at that time some of the seed corn went in the bin.

So, is there a mechanism up and running behind the scenes that takes a rail system that's essentially been nationalised for years albeit with a very curious model, can it quickly turn that into a system that's quick on its feet, hungry for growth and better able to serve people's need to travel? We'll soon find out.

Mark

[bradshaw]

If we could get a return to the NSE^▸ (Network South East) sub-divisions and give them some autonomy then there may be a chance. The WoE would look after the main line and perhaps Reading Basingstoke, along with Salisbury to Southampton. Their brief would be to develop the business, looking at other opportunities such as Bath and Bristol.
The Portsmouth Direct and Weymouth lines would return to Solent and Wessex.