South Western Railway Update

At our meeting on 26th February, Steve Tyler, Performance and Planning Director at South Western Railway, gave an update on the latest developments at that busiest of train operators. These changes included new IT systems, changes to timetables, the refreshing of stations, electric car charging points in car parks, the introduction of defibrillators, and Class 701 Arterios coming into service to replace the Class 455s.

Covid lead to many changes, with passengers travelling less on some workdays whilst leisure and off peak travel had increased post Covid and was still increasing. This meant changes to timetables. However all periods still had to covered.

There was now a push in the railway industry towards decarbonisation with various options available including electricity(overhead and third rail), hydrogen , battery and bi mode with technology making changes to locomotives and the rail road easier. Many locomotives were nearing the end of their days, for instance the Class 158/159s on the Waterloo to the West of England route had been in operation for 30 years or more and needed regular overhauls.

The area covered by the railway include a complex suburban area with many small stations and this meant some places suffered from slow train times into central London which required changes to routes and timetables, pleasing some whilst annoying others.

Other problems included dealing with industrial disputes and the need to train 600 drivers to operate the new trains being introduced.

All in all a tough but very satisfying job.