South West Trains

History

In 1995 the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising awarded the South West Trains franchise to Stagecoach. Operations commenced on 4 February 1996 with South West Trains' first train, the 05:10 Twickenham to London Waterloo, the first privatised scheduled train to operate for 48 years.

In April 2001 the Strategic Rail Authority awarded Stagecoach a new franchise after it beat bids from FirstGroup/NedRailways and Sea Containers. The 2001 franchises awarded were (as promulgated) to run for twenty years but in 2002 the Strategic Rail Authority reduced the duration of franchises and South West Trains was awarded a three-year franchise starting on 1 February 2004.

In December 2005 the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that Arriva, FirstGroup, MTR/Sea Containers, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to tender for the new South Western franchise, which combined the South West Trains and Island Line Trains franchises; National Express later withdrew. In September 2006 the DfT awarded the franchise to Stagecoach, the new franchise starting on 4 February 2007 for a period of ten years.

In the early days of its franchise, SWT gained notoriety for severe service cuts owing to driver shortages but it later made significant improvements to the network, including replacing much of the rolling stock, refurbishing stations, making stations accessible to disabled passengers, and improving customer information. During the early 2000s, improvements included the introduction of new rail services and the reopening of Chandler's Ford station in Hampshire.

A smoking ban on all SWT services was introduced from May 2004, partly in response to a fire caused by a cigarette left near a heater under a seat, and also pre-empting the public smoking ban introduced two years later.

On 12 December 2004 the company completely recast its timetable, for the first time in the South West region since 1967, in an attempt to bring service provision into line with changing demand and to take into account the different characteristics of modern rolling stock, with the intention that this would improve reliability and punctuality across the network.

In March 2013 the Secretary of State for Transport announced the DfT were in talks with Stagecoach to extend the franchise until April 2019. However, in July 2015 Stagecoach confirmed talks had failed and the franchise would be relet.

Stagecoach and a FirstGroup/MTR Corporation joint venture were shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. The franchise was awarded to FirstGroup/MTR Corporation with their joint venture company, South Western Trains, to take over in August 2017.

Services

South West Trains is the key operator for western Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, and also serves London, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon. Its services are described below.

Most SWT services run on electrified lines using the 750 V DC third-rail system. There is a diesel fleet for services on the West of England line to Salisbury, Exeter and Bristol, using the unelectrified track beyond Worting Junction just west of Basingstoke, and for Salisbury to Southampton via Romsey services which also serve Eastleigh. SWT operates almost 1,700 trains per day.

From Waterloo, SWT's London terminus, long-distance trains run to southern England, including the major coastal population centres of Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. There are also trains to Reading, Exeter and Bristol, but these are not the principal fast services from London to those cities, which are operated from London Paddington by Great Western Railway. The majority of its passengers are on suburban commuter lines in inner and south-west London, Surrey, east Berkshire, and north-east Hampshire.

Since privatisation in 1996, the network has changed considerably. It no longer serves West Croydon, Sutton, 'Coastway' stations between Chichester and Brighton, or the Reading to Basingstoke line. Services to Bristol (introduced in 2004 to replace withdrawn Arriva Trains Wales services), Mottisfont and Dunbridge and Dean have been introduced since the start of the franchise. Its longstanding services beyond Exeter to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance, which ran in competition with First Great Western and its predecessors, ceased in December 2009 so as to release stock for the hourly Waterloo to Exeter service.

As with most rail companies, non-folding bicycles are banned from peak-time trains to and from London. However, these restrictions apply only to cyclists boarding or alighting in the area bounded by Hook, Alton, Guildford, Reading and Dorking. The aim is to maximise available passenger space on the most crowded trains.

South West Trains also has Quiet Zones, similar to the Quiet Coaches on trains operated by certain other Train Operating Companies. Quiet Zones are available on most outer-suburban services and on some express services and are indicated by notices in the windows and signs on the doors. Passengers in these zones are requested not to use mobile phones or play music out loud.

Routes

South West Trains operate suburban and long-distance trains. Main destinations include: London Waterloo, Clapham Junction, Barnes, Richmond, Twickenham, Hounslow, Ascot, Staines, Reading, Windsor & Eton Riverside, Kingston, Raynes Park, Motspur Park, New Malden, Chessington South, Surbiton, Leatherhead, Weybridge, Dorking, Effingham Junction, Woking, Guildford, Aldershot, Alton, Farnborough Main, Fleet, Basingstoke, Haslemere, Andover, Winchester, Eastleigh, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Fareham, Portsmouth & Southsea, Brockenhurst, Portsmouth Harbour, Bournemouth, Westbury, Bristol Temple Meads, Weymouth, Yeovil Junction and Exeter St Davids.

Main lines

The seven main lines operated by SWT are:

Suburban services

Suburban services diverge from the above routes. Taken in order westwards from Waterloo, travelling down the SWML, they are:

Other services

Travelcards

London Travelcards are available and widely used for journeys into Greater London beyond any of the South West Trains stations. They are valid on London Buses, Tramlink, Docklands Light Railway, London Underground and national rail services within the London travelcard area. All tickets and (London) Travelcards are available on weekly, monthly and annual bases (such tickets are traditionally known as season tickets), a pre-requisite for which is a passport-sized photograph for a booking hall to issue a nationally valid railcard. All ticket pricing structures are regulated by the Office of Rail & Road.

Daily tickets fall into four categories: Peak 'Anytime', Off Peak, Super Off Peak and Advance (pre-booked, long distance). These are broken down into whether the user requires a Single, Return (valid for one calendar month) or a Day Return.

Smartcards

Oyster pay-as-you-go can be used on services within Greater London. Oyster cards holding season tickets are accepted within the London Travelcard area, in the same way as normal paper Travelcards and season tickets.

In November 2010 the Department for Transport announced that passengers would be able to top up Oyster cards at all stations operated by South West Trains in the London Travelcard area from May 2011. SWT was the last rail company franchise to offer this facility (except at Wimbledon and Richmond stations) for passengers using suburban rail services within the London Travelcard area.

The smartcard scheme for tickets on the national rail system was extended in early 2010 to cover the lines from Weymouth to Basingstoke and from Staines to Wokingham, and on the Isle of Wight, in addition to the current trial area between Staines and Windsor. It was also announced that SWT proposed to reduce operating hours at 24 of its ticket offices.

Penalty fares

South West Trains currently issues penalty fares for passengers travelling by train without a valid ticket. However, the company has planned to install at least one self-service ticket machine at each of its served stations in the bid to stop fare evasion. In 2009, ticket gates were installed at Waterloo to improve revenue protection.

Megatrain

Stagecoach, SWT's parent company, currently sells seats on some off-peak services under the Megatrain brand from Mondays to Saturdays. This uses a similar low-cost model to its Megabus service. Megatrain tickets are available on certain services expected to be lightly loaded. Tickets are generally between London Waterloo and other principal stations, and ticket-holders are assigned to a specific train.

Performance

Latest performance figures released by Network Rail for period 5 (2014/15) were 88.2% (Public Performance Measure – PPM) and 88.9% (Moving Annual Average – MAA) for the 12 months up to 16 August 2014.

In January 2016 South West Trains created controversy when they were forced to apologise for late trains 650 separate times in a single week.

Future of the franchise

In January 2016 Transport for London and the Department for Transport announced their intention for TfL to eventually take over the London suburban parts of the franchise, to form a new suburban metro service.

Desiro fleet

The introduction of Desiro rolling stock built by Siemens was to replace the old Class 411, Class 412, Class 421 and Class 423 slam-door trains which were coming to the end of their useful lives, and which did not meet modern health and safety requirements. The introduction was delayed.

The new trains have on-board information systems and full air-conditioning. Their faster acceleration is counterbalanced by the need to dwell longer at each station, since they have fewer doors. In addition, the Desiros have many more components: all are computerised and subject to the possibility of breakdowns. It is estimated that the slam-door trains could achieve 60,000 miles (96,000 km) without breakdown; the Desiros an estimated 13,000 miles (20,800 km) but this is gradually improving.

The Desiro stock comes in two variants – Class 450 units which have four 20 m cars and are mainly used on suburban and outer-suburban services, and Class 444 units which have five 23 m cars as well as intercity-style door layouts and are used on longer-distance services to Weymouth and Portsmouth Harbour.

Plans have been announced to introduce 30 new five-car Class 707 Desiro City trains on to the network from 2017.

British Rail EMUs (Class 455)

South West Trains operates a fleet of Class 455 metro-style commuter trains on services from London Waterloo to Shepperton, Hampton Court, Woking, Guildford, Dorking and Chessington, as well as services on the Kingston and Hounslow loops and occasionally on Windsor line services. These were built for British Rail.

A full refurbishment programme started in 2004 on the fleet of 91 four-car units and was completed in March 2008. Modifications included a new 2+2 seating layout with high-back seats, CCTV, cycle storage, wheelchair space, doors that open further to allow for faster alighting, and additional passenger information systems.

British Rail EMUs (Class 456)

All twenty-four Class 456 2-car EMUs were transferred from Southern to SWT, with the first units entering SWT service on 23 March 2014. These early 1990s-built units are compatible with the existing Class 455 fleet and are coupled with these to form 10-car trains, increasing capacity on some local services in and out of Waterloo.

Juniper fleet (Class 458/0 – 458/5)

Thirty of these four-car units were ordered by South West Trains in 1998, to create extra capacity and to replace some of the ageing Class 411 (4-CEP) trains, which at the time were on short-term lease. Deliveries of these trains began in 1998.

The class suffered major technical problems, so in the end, none of the older trains were withdrawn from service at that time. It was six more years, in 2004, before the full fleet was in service. In 2003 and 2004, reliability was so poor that, although they were only six years old, South West Trains decided that the units should be replaced by 2005 with the newer Class 450 Desiro units. Only a handful of units were required each day to help maintain services from Waterloo to Reading, and these had been expected to cease after 31 July 2006, when the lease with the rolling stock company expired. An application by SWT to extend this by six months was refused, as the class did not meet all the requirements of disability legislation.

However, later it was decided that, on or before the start of the new franchise in February 2007, the class would be reinstated and take over all operations on the Waterloo to Reading line, indirectly covering the loss of the Class 442s. They have been fitted with new, larger destination screens that comply with the disability legislation, but the trains still fall foul in some other areas, such as the height of the door-open buttons.

All 30 Class 458 trains were split up and the 120 vehicles reconfigured into 36 five-car sets, incorporating 60 extra vehicles from the mechanically similar Class 460s formerly used on Gatwick Express services. The five-car sets are now designated Class 458/5 and coupled together to form ten-car trains from 2014.

The first two of the 5-car sets were delivered in October 2013, and underwent testing ahead of the introduction of the first 10-car train into service in December 2013. Passenger service started in March 2014, with the work concluding in 2016, thereby rendering the 458/0s extinct.

Diesel

South West Trains currently has 11 two-carriage Class 158s and 30 three-carriage Class 159s (22 159/0s and 8 159/1s).

The 159/1s were converted at Wabtec, Doncaster from Class 158s, received from First TransPennine Express in exchange for Class 170s. Eleven further two-carriage 158s were received from First TransPennine Express, which were also refurbished at Wabtec.

Two Class 158s transferred from Central Trains entered service in July 2005 on the new Bristol Temple Meads service, moving to First ScotRail in February 2007.

Class 159s have on occasion been used for railtours.

Locomotives

Although South West Trains does not operate locomotive-hauled services, until 2009 it maintained three Class 73 locomotives for recovery duties. Locomotive 73109 had been in service with SWT since the start of the franchise; the other two, 73201 and 73235, were acquired from Gatwick Express in 2005. 73235 is now the only one of the three locomotives to be owned by South West Trains.

Past fleet

Former units operated by South West Trains include:

Wessex Electrics Fleet

These units (Class 442) were initially dedicated to the Weymouth line but, through the 1990s, began to be operated on the London to Portsmouth direct line also. In preparation for the Class 444 and Class 450 "Desiro" units taking over from the slam-door fleet, the Wessex Electrics were withdrawn from Portsmouth line services and were again wholly dedicated to the Weymouth line.

South West Trains announced that it would be withdrawing these units, and they last ran on 3 February 2007. This move also coincided with SWT reinstating all Class 458s for the Waterloo-Reading line. As a result, the Class 444s inherited the Waterloo – Weymouth route and the Class 450s took over some Portsmouth Harbour services, while the 442s went into storage at Eastleigh. In 2008, Southern leased these trains for its Gatwick Express service, and now operates them on services from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport and Brighton.

Turbostar Fleet

In 2000, South West Trains acquired eight 2-car Class 170/3 units to supplement its existing Class 159 fleet. They were used on London to Salisbury services as well as a new Southampton local service, and on Reading to Basingstoke services. They were sometimes pressed into use on Waterloo-Exeter services but, as they were not fitted with end gangways for catering or selective door opening for the short platforms at some stations, this was not a regular route.

From late 2006 to mid-2007, the Class 170s were gradually transferred to First TransPennine Express in exchange for a larger number of Class 158 units, to expand and standardise the fleet. One, 170392, originally built to Southern specifications but taken over by SWT soon after its construction, went to Southern and was converted to a Class 171.

Preserved trains

Of the Classes 411, 412, 421 and 423 slam-door trains, several complete former SWT units have been preserved.

In contrast, just two former Southern units have been preserved – one Class 421 and one Class 423. No complete units from South Eastern Trains have been preserved.

Class 121/Class 960 55028 is preserved on the Swanage Railway.

Wimbledon

Wimbledon Traincare depot is one of Europe's most advanced train servicing complexes. It is between Wimbledon and Earlsfield stations, on the main line to Waterloo, next to the Wimbledon railway viaduct.

Bournemouth

Bournemouth depot is southwest of Bournemouth station, occupying the approach to the former Bournemouth West station. Until their withdrawal in February 2007, the depot was home to the Class 442 (5Wes) Wessex Electrics. The branch turns off at Branksome station where trains can be seen stopping at platform 2 and reversing into the depot.

Clapham

Clapham Junction depot provides stabling for the Desiro fleet.

Northam

Northam depot was built by Siemens in 2002 as the home depot for the Desiro fleet as part of a 20-year maintenance contract. It is located south of St Denys station and is near Southampton Football Club's St Mary's Stadium.

Effingham

Located next to Effingham Junction station, the depot is used for the berthing of MPVs (Multipurpose Vehicles). It has two pitted roads and a fuel point.

Salisbury

Salisbury depot provides servicing for South West Trains' diesel fleet.

Fratton

Fratton Traincare depot is in central Portsea Island, alongside Fratton station. It has a carriage washer and is the fuelling point for the 158s and 159s. The depot has a train shed with two pitted roads for maintenance of rolling stock. Class 444 and 450 units berth overnight. Stabling sidings and bay platforms at Portsmouth & Southsea station are co-ordinated from the depot.

Farnham

Farnham depot, in Weydon Lane, was opened by the Southern Railway at the time of the electrification of the Portsmouth and Alton lines in 1937. It was refurbished for the introduction of modern units when slam-door trains were replaced circa 2005. At the same time, disused quarry and ballast dump sidings behind the carriage shed were removed and a number of outdoor sidings were laid for overnight storage and servicing of units.