South Western Railway Class 15x on the West of England route

West of England line

Last updated: Friday 6 November 2026

The West of England line is an important part of our network that links London with Hampshire, Wiltshire, North Dorset, Somerset and Devon. It serves a total of 21 stations over 120 miles and provides vital connectivity for regional centres such as Salisbury, Yeovil and Exeter, and many local communities in between.

We recognise that the line is different to the other routes on our network in terms of its length, geography and rolling stock, which bring a range of challenges.

West of Salisbury, the predominantly single-track line has only six passing points, which constrains services and makes it harder to recover when we experience disruption.

As we have seen in recent years, the West of England line is also vulnerable to extreme weather and most critically, the trains serving the route are ageing diesel units that are coming to the end of their operational lives.

It can be challenging to operate train services on this line because of the long sections of single track from Salisbury to Exeter, the trains that we use, and the impact that climate change is having.

This page provides information on those challenges and what we are doing to tackle each of them, as well as information on some of the other issues we are currently facing.

A message from our Managing Director, Lawrence Bowman

In October our Managing Director Lawrence Bowman provided an update on the West of England line, as you can see in the video below.

Operating train services

Unlike most of our network, the 124 miles from Basingstoke to Exeter St Davids is not electrified and we can only use diesel trains. Around 60 miles is single track, which severely constrains the way we operate train services and makes it harder to respond to disruption.

To run an hourly service between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids, there are only six places for trains to pass each other, and they must reach those places at the right time. Even a minor delay by one train can quickly become a major delay to many others, as this video explains.

Challenging conditions

The line between Salisbury and Exeter was built in the mid-1800s by engineers who constructed railway embankments using the soil they had dug out from the steep cuttings they were carving.

They did not have the specialist knowledge of today’s geotechnical engineers, who know much more about the way soil and rock behave when structures are built on them, and have a far greater understanding of different soil types.

Honiton Tunnel Entrance on the West of England line South Western Railway

Engineers installing new track at Honiton tunnel in 2024. The walls next to the track are to prevent landslips.

Today we know that steep cuttings are more at risk of landslips during very heavy rain, and that the soil in the south west of England contains a lot of clay, which expands in wet conditions and shrinks in dry and drought conditions.

Climate change and Soil Moisture Deficit

Because of the way the line was built it is particularly vulnerable to climate change. We are seeing very hot temperatures much more frequently and this can lead to Soil Moisture Deficit, when the ground cracks and disrupts the precise levels of our tracks.

On Monday 10 August we introduced a temporary timetable due to speed restrictions between Salisbury and Exeter, to keep customers moving safely and reliably.

Parts of the south west, including parts of Devon, Dorset and Somerset are still in drought, and the line from Salisbury to Exeter is still recovering from the driest ever conditions that the southern region of Britian’s railway network has ever experienced.

We are carrying out a large programme of tamping to improve track conditions so that we can eventually remove the speed restrictions in place, and later, restore the normal timetable.

Between Monday 23 and Thursday 26 November there will be some evening service changes to allow us to carry out additional tamping. For more information, please visit our dedicated webpage here.

Our Trains

Our Class 158 and 159 trains are going through a refurbishment programme to ensure they continue to operate safely, reliably and comfortably. As part of the programme, each train will receive:

Refurbished, more comfortable seats in both standard and first class
New carpets and vinyl flooring
Freshly painted interiors and exteriors
Improved signage and wayfinding
Upgraded tables, with at-table power modules in first class
Upgraded window curtains in first class

We are carefully balancing the need for improvements with having enough trains and seats in service, which is why the first three trains to enter the programme have received an initial set of improvements and returned to service, with further upgrades coming later. This will include USB-C charging points at every seat, which we know is a priority for our customers.

While we develop plans in the longer term to replace the fleet, which has been in service for almost 40 years, this is an important step in improving reliability and comfort and delivering better journeys

Availability of trains

We are pleased to confirm that we are close to securing an additional Class 158 unit which should enter service in the next few months.

We know that this will be welcome news following a challenging summer in which some of our Class 158 and Class 159 units were unavailable for service due to issues with their wheelsets and engines.

While there is more work to do, the availability of our trains has improved following a sustained effort by the team at our depot in Salisbury.

In railway period six, between 23 August and 19 September, the full fleet was in service on 24 of 28 days. The number of services that are shorter than they should be significantly reduced, down 70% from its worst period earlier in the year.

Our Class 158 and Class 159 trains have required additional maintenance in recent months, which has affected their availability.

We, and other UK operators of similar trains, have experienced problems with engine parts and wheelsets. Defects and failures that would typically be expected later in their service life are happening much sooner, and we are having to remove trains from service until they are fixed to keep our services running safely and reliably.

We are continuing to work with external suppliers to resolve problems with our engines, but there are some challenges to sourcing replacement wheelsets, as their suppliers deal with the impact of global supply chain delays. There are also only a limited number of suppliers for some of the key parts that we need due to the age of the fleet.

Longer term modernisation

Class 15x South Western Railway train in the countryside

We are developing a long-term plan to modernise the West of England line, planning train services, the trains we use, and infrastructure modernisation, together in a ‘whole system’ approach that could include additional sections of double track to improve performance and resilience, and some additional services.

We are working closely with local stakeholders to refine the options, review potential third-party funding opportunities and enhance the various elements' business cases.

We have developed a wide range of options and are carefully analysing each. The options with the strongest case - considering affordability, growth, decarbonisation, economic value and reliability - will be taken forward for further development in conjunction with the Department for Transport who, on Monday 28 September, published the Great British Railways rolling stock and infrastructure strategy.

Because the line serves a diverse range of communities and needs, there will need to be consensus amongst stakeholders about the options for further development.

We are now working with all our partners to align our long-term plan with this wider strategy, and because the line serves a diverse range of communities and needs, there will need to be consensus amongst stakeholders about the options for further development.

Alongside this we are continuing to invest in the maintenance of the line which includes provisional plans to replace signalling in the Salisbury area within the next 10 years.

Catering

We understand our customers and stakeholders’ views on catering and are looking carefully at the feasibility of on-board services.

In October we concluded a customer survey around catering options on our train services and are now analysing the feedback we received. We will share more information in due course.

Station improvements

We have a rolling programme of station improvements, from re-painting stations to installing new facilities and customer information systems and are working with local stakeholders to improve onward connections and accessibility.

Improving facilities

In 2025, alongside Wiltshire Council, we unveiled the newly remodelled forecourt at Salisbury, our flagship station on the West of England line and a key interchange with services to Bristol, Bath, Southampton and Portsmouth.

As part of a £5.5 million investment from the Future High Streets fund, the front of the station was transformed through extensive landscaping with new trees and shrubs, stylish street furniture and intuitive wayfinding, to create a more welcoming, accessible, and vibrant gateway to the historic cathedral city for visitors and residents.

Ariel shot of Salisbury train station operated and served by South Western Railway

One of the major benefits has been the improved access for buses to the station alongside customer facilities including waiting shelters and real time information screens. This has led to new bus services at the station, and more are planned.

Also at Salisbury, we have recently refurbished the customer toilets on platform 4, while in the booking hall we have opened a new Gourmet Coffee shop.the toilets on platforms 2 and 3 are due for refurbishment by spring 2027.

Further down the line we have repainted Gillingham, Honiton and Feniton stations, repainted the platform canopy at Axminster, and refurbished the waiting rooms at Gillingham and Feniton.

Improving customer information

We know how important it is to provide clear, easy to understand and easy to access information at our stations, which is why we have installed new customer information systems at four of our stations recently.

New customer information systems can be found in the booking hall and on platforms 2 and 3 at Salisbury, while at Honiton, Axminster and Yeovil Junction, we have installed new, interactive information totems.

Improving connectivity

In September 2025 we worked with Wiltshire Council and GWR to introduce a new on-demand bus service that connects Gillingham, Tisbury and Warminster stations to locations in South West Wiltshire including major attractions such as Stourhead (National Trust), Old Wardour Castle (English Heritage) and Longleat.

Axminster and Honiton are two of the key interchange points of a bus and rail integration programme we are developing on the Jurassic Coast. The comprehensive programme will include improved ticketing, new bus services and improved information, alongside wide-ranging promotional activity such as social media and an upgraded website.

Improving accessibility

As part of the Department for Transport's Access for All programme, we are working with Somerset Council and other local partners on a detailed design for an accessible footbridge at Yeovil Junction.

Design work is set to begin in the coming weeks, with the aim of securing a decision from the Department of Transport in the spring of 2027 to proceed to construction.

An accessible gate has also been installed at Feniton.