South Western Railway (SWR) has confirmed its new timetable which will operate from Monday 22nd May 2023.
The new timetable continues to match capacity with demand, with customer numbers at 78 per cent of their total prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Peak time travel has recovered to 61 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, meaning demand remains below the network’s available capacity.
A small number of important changes have been made to improve performance and provide better onward travel connections.
Portsmouth
To improve the spread of services on the Portsmouth Direct Line, between Portsmouth Harbour and London Waterloo via Guildford, one change will be made:
- 0615 Portsmouth Harbour-London Waterloo starts 5 minutes earlier at 0610
Lymington
To provide better connections in Lymington for ferries to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, two changes will be made:
- 0929 Brockenhurst-Lymington Pier starts 13 minutes later at 0942
- 0944 Lymington Pier-Brockenhurst 13 minutes later at 0957
Weybridge and Chertsey area
To improve the performance of key trains used by students at schools in the Weybridge and Chertsey areas, the following changes will be made:
- 0723 London Waterloo-Alton starts 3 minutes earlier at 0720
- 0720 London Waterloo-Woking starts 3 minutes earlier at 0717
- 0717 London Waterloo-Chessington South starts 3 minutes later at 0720
- 0803 Weybridge-London Waterloo starts 1 minute earlier at 0802
Other changes
To improve the spread of services between Westbury and Yeovil Pen Mill, and to better integrate with Great Western Railway’s new timetable on its Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth route, two changes will be made:
- 1137 Basingstoke-Yeovil Junction via Westbury starts 1 minute later at 1138 and will terminate at Salisbury instead of Yeovil Junction
- A new service, 1251 Salisbury-Yeovil Junction via Westbury, will be introduced
Tyler: Alterations made to improve performance
Steve Tyler, Performance and Planning Director for South Western Railway, said:
“We are confident that our service levels match demand on the network, but have monitored changes in customer flows and made some minor changes to our timetable.
“While the majority of our timetable is the same as the one in place, we have made alterations to improve performance and provide better onward travel, such as in Lymington where our services will offer better connectivity with ferries to the Isle of Wight.
“Our advice to customers is to check before travelling as those changes mean a small number of services will depart slightly earlier, or later, than the December 2022 timetable.”
Article edit
5.30pm 12th Apr 2023 – Correction made to headline in relation to improving services from ferry connections
News shared by Steve on behalf of South Western Railway. Ed
