‘Bloody hell, not again...’. These are words you’ll hear yourself muttering time and time again. The reason? SouthWest Trains. They’re overcrowded, they’re late, and they smell, the stations all need redecorating....
The list goes on and on. So why do South West Trains have over 28,000 customers each day? The reason – well, it’s probably because even though they fail on nearly everything, it is still easier than driving. They run over 1600 trains every weekday, to over 217 stations with over 4,500 members of staff; quite impressive really.
This op is being written on the Weymouth – Waterloo route, one which I have become familiar with and has become familiar to me, one which takes 2h 48m to complete normally, but has never been done in less than 3. There is 1 train an hour on this route from 6.48am to 8.48pm.
SouthWest Trains are part of the Stagecoach group, a large group of companies, which run mainly bus services but evidently run trains too.
SouthWest Trains punctuality report for main line routes is 84.1%, or close
to. A punctuality report shows how many trains arrive within 5 minutes of the timetable time. This is slightly up on last year, when it was around the 83% mark. This is slightly higher in the suburban areas, where it is at around 87%, which is slightly down from last year.
South West Trains reliability report for Main Line routes is at around the 99.4%, which is slightly up on last year, but looking at the graph I can see that this year has gone up and down dramatically between 98% and 99.6%. Suburban reliability is at about 99%, which is slightly u from last year. A reliability report is how many trains were not cancelled.
The strategic rail authority took all these measurements.
Main Line services include services between London Waterloo and Portsmouth, Basingstoke, Weymouth and the West of England.
I think by now you can see South West Trains isn’t too bad, or so it seems. These figures as they are, only ever 2 times out of the 100 or so that I’ve used them have they been exactly on time. The longest wait I’ve ever put up with was over 1 hour, and the shortest was about 3 minutes.
South West Trains run routes all over the south of Britain, between Weymouth, Exeter, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Brighton and a whole host of other places to London Waterloo. Waterloo is SouthWest Trains (from now on in this op they will be SWT) main station, with most trains passing through here every day.
SWTs ticket prices are reasonable, but booking APEX will save you alot. APEX tickets are booked 7 days in advance, and save you nearly 50% on normal fares. An example of their normal fares are: Weymouth – Poole (a 35ish mile trip) for 8.60 return. I must say, however, that there is only a marginal difference between their single and return ticket prices.
SouthWest Trains use at least 4 types of train; both Diesel and Electric powered ones. The Weymouth route uses Electric, however I know that the Exeter one uses Diesel. They have just started introducing new trains, and are trying to reduce the amount of Slam door trains they currently use.
Not every SWT station is manned, for example Upwey (Where, I hear you say...) Well, Upwey is just outside of Weymouth, but doesn’t even have a ticket machine! This is the case of some of SWT stations, I can think of quite a few off the top of my head. However, some like Bournemouth are heavily manned, and have Cafes; vending machines, information kiosks and so forth. Every SWT station now has a Help point (Including the unmanned ones). The help point has 2 buttons; emergency and information. The information is to find out when he next train is etc., and the emergency is if there is an emergency, for example there’s some man over the other side of the track looking at you and has a knife or something. They have also introduced LCD signs on all stations, letting you know when and where the next 3 trains are going to arrive and go. These are useful and usually correct, although they may be a minute or 2 off.
The interior of a South West Trains carriage is very basic really; there are double seats on each aisle, or in some cases the odd 4-seater with table. The layout is basically: 11-11, with 1 representing a seat and – representing an aisle. However, this layout is only for a class 158 train which is mainly on the Weymouth – Waterloo route, and on other it varies; however not alot. The seats are quite comfortable, and there is an overhead storage compartment, which is quite weak and flimsy. There is also a First Class saloon on some trains, which barely ever gets used as it is so expensive to upgrade to. There is also a buffet car; which is highly overpriced with a smoking bit next to it. That’s one of the reasons I don’t really use their buffet cars, as they stink of fag smoke! Most doors are the sliding ones, however some old banger trains do use the slam door system, which is both annoying and dangerous, especially for the elderly.
Bicycles can be carried on most trains, for no extra fee, but on some there is limited space and on others there is a fee to pay. They get kept in the guards’ carriage.
By the way – if you are on a train and it is accelerating away from a station, listen carefully and you can hear the gears change! Odd, I know, but quite amusing to sit and listen to.
At some stations, there is quite a large gap between the station and the platform; however the guard usually warns you of this, and to be extra careful.
SWT are now issuing fines for anyone on the trains without a valid ticket, unless they got on at a station that was unmanned and without a machine; basically if you try and dodge the fare you’ll get a fine, mate.
SWTs staffs are always remarkably helpful I find, though. They must go through a very thorough training program, as I really can’t fault their staff 1 bit.
Overall, even if they cancel trains and make people feel annoyed, they still get you from A to B............Eventually.
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Oct 4th, 2003
very helpful by (91%):
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