Customers based across the South Western Railway network 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.
“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.”
Here are some of the highlights from the new timetable:
- Two additional fast Portsmouth to Waterloo services* in the morning peak and an additional evening peak service to Guildford / Haslemere.
- Reading to Waterloo passengers will see two additional trains during the morning peak, and there will also be an additional service during the morning peak from Ascot to Reading. There will also be additional Windsor and Hounslow trains in the morning peak period towards London.
- The Waterloo to Farnham (via Ascot) route will see two additional services, while one additional Waterloo to Windsor, and two Reading to Ascot services will also be added, all during the evening peak.
- New half-hourly service between Farnham and Guildford.
- Extra later evening services from Waterloo to Salisbury and Waterloo to Portsmouth.
- On Sundays, there will be a new Salisbury to Reading (via Basingstoke) service.
- On the south coast, there will be some additional services between Weymouth/Poole/Southampton and Waterloo during peak times.
- Extra weekday and weekend services from Yeovil to Waterloo calling at Castle Cary, Bruton and Frome.
- Godalming will benefit as all fast Portsmouth/Waterloo services will call at the station (doubling the number of services).
Other improvements to the timetable include some evening suburban service changes with an additional Waterloo to Chessington South and Chessington South to Wimbledon service.
The summer Saturday Weymouth service on the Salisbury to Yeovil route will be extended to cover the full timetable period.
For more details about each route:
