West of England Main Line

West of England Main Line
Templecombe station
Overview
Type	Suburban rail, Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) Standard gauge

West of England Main Line

Legend 0.00 London Waterloo South Western Main Line 47.76 Basingstoke 50.26 Worting Junction To Southampton Oakley 55.56 Overton 59.08 Whitchurch Didcot - Winchester Hurstbourne To Southampton via Longparish To Southampton via Andover Town 66.24 Andover Red Post Junction To Cheltenham 72.61 Grateley To Bulford Camp Idmiston Halt Porton To Southampton 83.48 Salisbury To Westbury Wilton South Barford St Martin Viaduct Dinton 96.18 Tisbury Tisbury West Semley 105.23 Gillingham Gillingham Viaduct Buckhorn Weston Tunnel S&DJR, Bath - Bournemouth 111.99 Templecombe Milborne Port Sherborne 118.05 Sherborne Castle Cary to Weymouth To Yeovil Town 122.60 Yeovil Junction Sutton Bingham 131.41 Crewkerne Crewkerne Tunnel Hewish Chard Junction 139.44 Chard Junction To Chard Town Broom Axminster 144.51 Axminster To Lyme Regis To Seaton Seaton Junction Honiton Tunnel 154.70 Honiton Roundball Halt To Sidmouth River Otter Viaduct 159.30 Feniton Feniton 163.03 Whimple Cannaford Broad Clyst Pinhoe 168.55 Pinhoe Whipton Bridge Halt Exmouth Junction To Exmouth Mount Pleasant Road Halt Blackboy Tunnel 170.90 St James Park 171.38 Exeter Central St David's Tunnel To Penzance 172.15 Exeter St Davids Red Cow Crossing Cowley Bridge Jn To Taunton To Barnstaple and former route to Plymouth

The West of England Main Line is a British railway line that runs from Basingstoke, Hampshire to Exeter St Davids in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter. Despite its historic title, this is not today's principal route from London to the West of England: Exeter and beyond are reached more quickly by the Great Western Main Line from London Paddington.

History

When all routes had been incorporated into the London and South Western Railway, this section of the network consisted of the various sections and stations listed below.

• Basingstoke to Salisbury
  • Basingstoke to Andover opened 3 July 1854
  • Andover to Salisbury opened 1 May 1857

• Intermediate branches were built to serve the following places between Basingstoke and Salisbury.
  • Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened June 1901, closed all traffic 30 May 1936
  • Two branches, from Hurstbourne and Andover to Romsey and onto Eastleigh and Southampton: both closed. Link via Longparish opened 1 June 1885; closed all traffic 6 July 1931.
  • At Andover was the junction with the Midland and South Western Junction Railway to Cheltenham
  • The Bulford Camp branch
  • Salisbury to Romsey, with a branch from this line to Bournemouth
  • In Salisbury, the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from Westbury and Bristol had its own terminus: the L&SWR continued the route southeastwards towards Southampton. This route today is the Wessex Main Line route.

• Between Salisbury and Exeter on the main line; the sections were opened as follows:
  • Salisbury — Yeovil opened 2 May 1859
  • Yeovil — Exeter opened 19 July 1860

• Intermediate branches were built to serve the following places between Salisbury and Exeter.
  • branch to Yeovil Town joint station with the GWR
  • branch to Chard joint station with the GWR
  • branch to Lyme Regis from Axminster
  • branch to Seaton from Seaton Junction (closed)
  • branch to Sidmouth from Sidmouth Junction (also alternative route to Exmouth)
  • branch to Exmouth from Exmouth Junction near Exeter

The line was significantly downgraded by being singled for long sections west of Salisbury by British Rail. This restricts the number of trains that can serve stations on this section of the line, passing loops have been added to alleviate this problem.

Route

The main towns served by the route are listed below. The line between London and Basingstoke is part of the South Western Main Line. Stations between Honiton and Exeter (Feniton, Whimple and Pinhoe) are limited service stations.

• London Waterloo
• Clapham Junction
• Woking
• Basingstoke
• Overton
• Whitchurch
• Andover
• Grateley
• Salisbury
• Tisbury
• Gillingham
• Templecombe
• Sherborne
• Yeovil Junction
• Crewkerne
• Axminster
• Honiton
• Feniton (Limited Stops)
• Whimple (Limited Stops)
• Pinhoe (Limited Stops)
• Exeter Central
• Exeter St Davids

Current operations

A Class 159 arrives at Axminster with an Exeter St Davids to London Waterloo service

Passenger services are currently operated by South West Trains using Class 159 and Class 158 trains. Currently trains generally run half-hourly from London to Salisbury, and hourly to Exeter. The Network Rail South West Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy (March 2006) recommended building an extended section of double track from Chard Junction to Axminster, plus a passing loop at Whimple. However, Network Rail's Route Plan, is silent on the Whimple loop. As built, the Axminster Loop is centred on Axminster station, and does not extend to Chard Junction as originally proposed.

An hourly service now runs between Exeter and London Waterloo (almost clockface except for a few early morning services) as published in the timetable starting 12 December 2010. The stations between Exeter Central and Honiton (Pinhoe, Whimple and Feniton) retain a two-hourly service, but with services alternating between calling at Pinhoe, and Whimple and Feniton with few services calling at all three stations. South West Trains no longer runs beyond Exeter from December 2009.

The line is not electrified (except for the SWML portion).

The typical off-peak services are:

• 1tph London to Salisbury calling at all stations
• 1tph London to Exeter St. Davids
  • Some of these trains divide with a portion going to Bristol Temple Meads

Between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, trains for the West of England Main Line call at Clapham Junction and Woking.

See also

• Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR
• Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury

References

• Network Rail Business Plan 2006: Route 3 - South West Main Line (PDF)
• Network Rail Business Plan 2006: Route 4 - Wessex Routes (PDF)
• Network Rail Business Plan 2006: Route 12 - Reading to Penzance (PDF)
• Ordnance Survey [1]

Bibliography

• R.V.J.Butt, (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens. ISBN 97818526050871. 
• J.H. Lucking (1968). Railways of Dorset: an outline of their establishment, development and progress from 1825. Lichfield: Railway Correspondence and Travel Society. OCLC 31916.