Summary of December 2018 timetable consultation published

Proposals to deliver more and faster trains for passengers moved a step closer today when South Western Railway published the main outcomes of its December 2018 timetable consultation.

The consultation drew over 7000 responses from key stakeholders and customers from across the network, with views expressed in letters, emails and at face to face meetings.

Since the consultation closed at the end of last year, train planners have been reviewing all of these comments and making changes wherever possible, before producing the final proposals for submission to Network Rail. 

Detailed timetables cannot be produced until after Network Rail has reviewed the plans and how they fit with timetable bids made by other passenger and freight operators, however there were several key areas of concern during the consultation and a summary document covering the outcome of the in these areas is now available online at  www.southwesternrailway.com/timetableconsultation. 

 Andy Mellors, South Western Railway managing director, said:

“I am grateful to everyone that participated in the consultation. We recognise that this major timetable change will have a significant impact on our customers and the communities we serve. We have listened to, and where possible acted upon, the feedback we have been given, and I believe now have an improved plan which will deliver a better railway.

“Of course it has not been possible to meet every aspiration, and to address the most common piece of feedback, which was to retain certain station stops in some of proposed faster services has meant some difficult trade-offs have had to be made between maintaining connectivity and faster journey times.”

Our final proposals have been produced in partnership with the Department for Transport as addressing some of the key customer and stakeholder concerns required a change to the timetable specification included in our franchise contract.

 We expect to publish full timetables later this year once Network Rail has completed its review.