Secretary of State Chris Grayling and SW Trains MD Andy Mellors during the South Western Railway Stakeholder launch at Waterloo Station.

Extra services for Portsmouth, Southampton and Island Line trains announced

South Western Railway share this annonucement. Ed


Customers based on South Western Railway’s Portsmouth and Southampton main lines will benefit from extra services and journey opportunities when the next train timetable is introduced, from 19 May.

Andy Mellors, Managing Director of South Western Railway, welcomed the good news:

“There will be substantial changes to our next timetable starting in May, which will bring over 300 additional train services a week for our customers across the network.

“Many of these service enhancements are based on extensive consultations and feedback sessions that were undertaken previously with local stakeholders, businesses, community groups and customers.

“We are very pleased that these enhancements will come to fruition shortly and we will continue to work on refurbishing our existing fleet and introducing brand new state-of-the-art trains in to service by the end of the year.”

Island Line
The Island Line summer Sunday service of two trains per hour will continue throughout the winter.

Full details of all timetable changes for May 2019 are available online at South Western Railway or National Rail Network.

Portsmouth main line highlights
Some of the highlights for the Portsmouth main line are:

  • Additional peak hour services on the Portsmouth direct line
  • Additional services between Waterloo and Hedge End, Botley, Fareham
  • Additional late evening weekday services to / from Waterloo and Haslemere / Portsmouth
  • Additional Sunday afternoon fast Waterloo – Portsmouth and Southsea services in both directions (routed via Cobham)
  • Doubling of the frequency of services at Godalming
  • New Farnham to Guildford service

Southampton main line highlights
Some of the highlights for the Southampton main line are:

  • Additional services from Southampton / Bournemouth / Poole area stations to / from Waterloo
  • Additional peak hour services on the Southampton mainline
  • Some faster Waterloo / Weymouth services
  • Additional services between Waterloo and Hedge End, Botley and Fareham
  • Additional fast Sunday evening service from Poole and Waterloo calling at Bournemouth and Southampton Central only – reducing overcrowding on Weymouth services
  • New Basingstoke to Reading, Andover and Salisbury services on Sundays
  • Additional fast Monday – Saturday evening services between Basingstoke, Woking and Waterloo with additional peak hour services
  • Additional Clapham Junction calls on West of England services to / from Basingstoke and Woking outside peak periods

Image: © Simon Galloway