SWR May-December Timetables

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

Are also now available:
https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/timetables

[bobm]

I note the Island Line timetable is still only hourly for parts of the day - even in high summer.

[grahame]

Complete SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) offering, Waterloo and Salisbury to Warminster, Trowbridge, Frome, Bath and Bristol from 15 May 2022

[Mark A]

Completely normal for train operating companies to issue timetables with a list of stations nominally on their network but to which they provide no services.

[brooklea]

Suggests to me that there must be some people at SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) who are also still smarting from the decision to remove their services between Westbury and Bristol; and not just the passengers who used to use said services….

[Mark A]

It might be that removing Bristol from their franchise, or direct award, or whatever it is, would have involved some legal heavy lifting. On their web site the line's still marked as being part of the... franchise. Why it's then flaunted in timetables is another matter, that can hardly be a legal requirement.

On the SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) web site network map page the (missing) Bristol services pretty well head up the page with a paragraph to themselves including this: "Please use the online journey planner to find connecting services and book your tickets for the full journey."

For an end to end journey the intending traveller will likely find that the online journey planner directs them (and the income) away from the South Western Railway network and organisation completely - but as long as they're not lost to rail completely, an overall gain for the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

Mark

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/our-network

[ChrisB]

It might be that removing Bristol from their franchise, or direct award, or whatever it is, would have involved some legal heavy lifting. On their web site the line's still marked as being part of the... franchise. Why it's then flaunted in timetables is another matter, that can hardly be a legal requirement.

Far more likely that they've left it in out of laziness, but possibly more sensibly to show confirmation that they don't offer through trains any more, hence the verbage you mention as well. Likely to disappear in the next iteration?

[Timmer]

but possibly more sensibly to show confirmation that they don't offer through trains any more, hence the verbage you mention as well. Likely to disappear in the next iteration?

This was my thoughts too as to why they are still listing stations they no longer serve.

[WSW Frome]

I am not surprised the "via Frome" SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) services remain in the new timetable. They are probably still part of the "franchise" requirement and this would need a major change. An example is the 19.26 from Yeovil PM now terminates at Westbury and then goes ecs to Salisbury. IIRC^▸ ('if I recall/remember/read correctly') this service used to combine with an SWR service from Bristol. So the service is now somewhat redundant/pointless but remains in place.

Any change will come in December when there could be major changes on the West of England route. This is proposed to reduce/eliminate short workings to Yeovil Junction which will reduce the need for paths via Frome to return the stock to Salisbury. Now the services which make commercial sense may be retained and there will still be requirement for route learning to cover diversions when required. So if the WoE changes occur then via Frome services will be modified and likely reduced to "a lower level of provision" which might be zero.