South West Trains

South West Trains (SWT) is a Train Operating Company operating in the United Kingdom, providing train services to the south-west of London, chiefly in Greater London and the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Wiltshire (the area largely covered before 1923 by the London and South Western Railway company, hence the new company's name).

SWT since privatisation

A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, SWT took over the operation of the old British Rail Southern Region's South Western division following the privatisation of British Rail in 1996. At the time they started changing the livery of its rolling stock to one with an orange, red, blue, and white stripe as this was an easy modification of the trains' existing British Rail Network SouthEast livery, but in recent years it has standardised on a trio of slight variations of this original - mainly white for long-distance services, mainly blue for outer-suburban services, and a mainly red livery for local services which is being applied to the Class 455 electric multiple units as they are refurbished. Since privatisation a number of initiatives have been undertaken including refurbishing stations, better access for disabled people, and better customer information displays at stations.

Restored 3Cig unit no. 1498 "Farringford" at Lymington Pier on 26 May 2005. This unit has been repainted in 1960s-era British Railways green livery.

The franchise was renewed in February 2003, but for only four years instead of the 20-year franchise that the company expected.

Recent developments include the introduction of new rail services and the reopening of Chandler's Ford station in Hampshire. At the end of 2004 the company completely recast its timetable for the first time since 1967 in an attempt to bring service provision into line with changing demand and to take into account the different characteristics of modern rolling stock, with the intention that this would improve reliability and punctuality across the network.

A complete smoking ban on all SWT services was introduced from May 2004. In addition, there are restrictions on the carriage of bicycles: non-folding bicycles are banned from early morning and evening trains to and from London Waterloo, which has drawn criticism from integrated transport advocates and cyclists alike. The company justifies this policy by pointing out that many trains are extremely crowded during the rush hour, and that bicycles take up as much space as several people.

A new South Western franchise, including the Isle of Wight's Island Line in addition to the current SWT franchise area, will take effect on 4 February 2007.

Train services

The hub of the network is London Waterloo station, SWT's London terminus. It connects London to the southern and western area of England; a major portion of the company's services is also concerned with suburban commuter lines in south-west London. All of SWT's trains into and out of Waterloo pass through or stop at Vauxhall and Clapham Junction stations, the latter of which is Britain's busiest railway station.

Main lines

A Class 444 Desiro unit used by SWT for longer-distance services.

There are four main lines operated by SWT:
* The South Western Main Line (SWML) to Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth;
* The Portsmouth Direct Line via Guildford: leaves the main line at Woking;
* The West of England Main Line to Exeter, Paignton, Plymouth, (and Penzance): leaves the main line at Basingstoke
* Wessex Main Line (part): Southampton via Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads

Suburban services

A Class 455 suburban unit at Wimbledon.

It is from these three routes that suburban routes operate. Taken in order westwards from Waterloo, travelling down the SWML, they are:
* Waterloo to Reading line: from Clapham Junction, includes the Hounslow Loop Line, the Windsor branch; the Chertsey loop line from Virginia Water to Weybridge; and the Ascot to Ash Vale line via Camberley;
* Dorking line, from Raynes Park, including:
** the Chessington Branch;
* the Shepperton branch, from New Malden, including:
** the Strawberry Hill loop line;
* the Guildford route, via Cobham from Surbiton. Travellers from Guildford to London can also travel via the main line through Woking; and via Camberley
* the Hampton Court branch, also from Surbiton;
* the Alton branch, from Brookwood

Other services

* Southampton local lines: Totton via Chandler's Ford to Romsey
* Lymington branch
* Reading to Brighton

Megatrain

Stagecoach, SWT's parent company, have begun to sell seats on some off peak services under the Megatrain brand. This uses a similar low cost model to their Megabus service.

Rolling stock notes

Wessex Electrics fleet

The units were initially dedicated to the Weymouth line, but through the 1990s began to be diagrammed on the London Waterloo to Portsmouth direct line. When the Class 444 units are fully commissioned, the Wessex Electrics will again be dedicated to the Weymouth line.The Class 442 was one of the first types to make extensive use of plastics in construction, earning them the nickname among staff of "Plastic Pigs". When they were first introduced they were plagued by minor technical failures but subsequently became among the most reliable EMUs operating in the UK. One unit 2416 has been withdrawn due to having non standard equiment. It is expected to be used to combat a shortage of parts.

Greyhound fleet

Services on the Lymington Branch Line are now operated as a "heritage" operation using one of two refurbished 3Cig units, nos. 1497 and 1498. The two units have been repainted into their original liveries, and were launched into service on 12 May 2005.

Desiro fleet

A Siemens Desiro Class 450 unit.

The introduction of Desiro rolling stock built by Siemens was to replace the old slam-door trains which were coming to the end of their useful lives, and had been posing health and safety problems. The introduction was delayed because of the additional power needs of this type of stock: Network Rail spent £1 billion upgrading the power supply to take account of this.

The new trains are generally proving popular with passengers, with on-board information systems and full air-conditioning. Their faster acceleration is counterbalanced by the need to stop longer at each station, since they have fewer doors (although the fact that the old trains' doors could be opened while in motion was considered a safety hazard). In addition, the Desiros have many more components: all are computerised and subject to the possibility of breakdowns. It is estimated that the slam-door trains could achieve 60,000 miles (96,000 km) without breakdown; the Desiros an estimated 13,000 miles (20,800 km) but this is gradually improving.

The final slam-door train on regular passenger services ran from London Waterloo to Bournemouth on 26 May 2005 with units 1396, 3536 and 1398. Some slam-door units have been preserved on heritage railways and three are retained by SWT for operations on the Lymington Branch Line and for special duties.

The Desiro stock comes in two variants - Class 450 units have four cars and are mainly used on outer suburban services, while Class 444 units have five cars as well as longer intercity style coach bodies and are for use on longer-distance services to, among other destinations, Portsmouth.

Juniper Fleet

A Class 458 'Juniper' unit at Virginia Water station in April 2004.

Thirty of these four-carriage units were ordered by South West Trains in 1998, to create extra capacity and to replace some of the ageing 4Cep units, which at the time were on short-term lease. Deliveries of these units commenced in 1998.

The class suffered from major technical problems, so none of the older units were withdrawn from service. It was six more years, in 2004, before the full fleet was in service. In 2003 and 2004, reliability was so dire that although they were only six years old, South West Trains decided that the units should be replaced by 2005 with the newer Class 450 Desiro units [1]. Only a handful of units are required each day to help maintain services from Waterloo to Reading, and these are expected to cease after 31 July 2006 when the lease with the rolling stock company expires. An application by SWT to extend this by six months was declined as the class does not meet all the requirements of disability legislation.

Other notes

The vast majority of SWT's services are on electrified lines using the 750 V DC third-rail system. There is a relatively small diesel fleet for services on the West of England line to Exeter and Bristol. SWT operates up to 1690 trains per day. Due to the high volume of trains and years of under-investment, delays were commonplace and often led to passenger angst. Initiatives to improve performance have borne fruit and services are generally reliable. These include the introduction of a completely re-structured timetable in December 2004 and the commissioning of a unified Network Rail and SWT control centre at Waterloo, which aims to improve communication between the different organisations responsible for the operation of the railway.