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South Western Main Line
British Rail Class 444 with South West Trains livery at Poole railway station
Overview
Type	Commuter rail, Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Greater London Surrey Hampshire Dorset South East England South West England
Termini	London Waterloo Weymouth
Operation
Opened	1838-1840
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	South Western Railway CrossCountry
Depot(s)	Clapham Junction Wimbledon Northam Bournemouth
Rolling stock	Class 444 "Desiro" Class 450 "Desiro" Class 455 Class 456 Class 220 "Voyager" Class 221 "Super Voyager" Class 159 "South Western Turbo"
Technical
Line length	142 miles 64 chains (229.8 km)
Number of tracks	4 (London Waterloo to Basingstoke) 2 (Basingstoke to Moreton) 1 (Moreton to Dorchester South) 2 (Dorchester South to Weymouth)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC third rail
Operating speed	100 mph (160 km/h)

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[ v t e ] South Western main line
Legend
South Eastern main line London Charing Cross │ London Bridge London Waterloo East London Waterloo London Waterloo International 1994-2007 London Necropolis stations 1854–1902 1902–1941 Vauxhall Nine Elms railway station and locomotive works 1838–1848 1839–1860s Linford curve Chatham main line London Victoria │ Dover and Ramsgate Queenstown Road Brighton main line to London Victoria West London Line to Willesden Junction junction diagram Clapham Junction Brighton main line to Brighton Waterloo–Reading line via Barnes Wandsworth 1838–1863 Earlsfield River Wandle Wimbledon depot │ staff platforms LU District line and operators' diversionary route Sutton Loop Line to Streatham via Haydons Road Wimbledon Tramlink to West Croydon Sutton Loop Line to Sutton Raynes Park Sutton and Mole Valley lines and Chessington branch line New Malden Kingston loop to Shepperton branch line Berrylands Kingston (L&SWR) 1838–1845 Surbiton Hampton Court line New Guildford line Esher River Mole Hersham Walton-on-Thames Weybridge Chertsey branch line to Virginia Water Byfleet & New Haw M25 motorway Wey Navigation Basingstoke Canal West Byfleet Woking Portsmouth Direct line to Guildford Brookwood Cemetery South North 1854–1941 London Necropolis Railway Brookwood Bisley Camp World War I to Deepcut World War II to Pirbright 1890–1952 Alton line to Aldershot Ascot to Aldershot line Ascot │ Aldershot North Downs Line Wokingham │ Guildford Farnborough Bramshot Halt 1913–1946 Fleet Winchfield M3 motorway Hook River Loddon Reading–Basingstoke line Basingstoke Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway Park Prewett 1913–1954 Worting Junction Battledown Flyover West of England line to Salisbury Litchfield Tunnel 198 yd 181 m Popham No 1 Tunnel 265 yd 242 m Popham No 2 Tunnel 199 yd 182 m Micheldever Micheldever Oil Terminal Wallers' Ash Tunnel Mid Hants Railway to Alresford Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway to Newbury Winchester Junction Winchester Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Rly M3 motorway Shawford Eastleigh–Romsey line Eastleigh Eastleigh–Fareham line Eastleigh Works Southampton Airport Parkway M27 motorway Swaythling Portswood 1861–1866 West Coastway line to Fareham St Denys Northam 1839–1840 Northam Traincare Depot Northam Junction Northam 1872–1966 Southampton Tunnel Southampton Terminus 1840–1966 Southampton Eastern Docks Southampton West End 1847–1895 Southampton Central Millbrook Southampton Western Docks Southampton Container Terminals Redbridge Wessex Main Line to Salisbury River Test Totton Fawley branch line freight only to Fawley Refinery Ashurst New Forest Beaulieu Road Brockenhurst Lymington branch line to Lymington Pier Southampton and Dorchester Railway to Ringwood Sway New Milton Hinton Admiral Ringwood, Christchurch & Bournemouth Rwy River Avon Christchurch River Stour Pokesdown Boscombe 1897–1965 Bournemouth East 1870–1885 Bournemouth Meyrick Park Halt 1906–1917 Bournemouth West 1874–1965 Bournemouth Traincare Depot Branksome Parkstone Parkstone Pottery Tramway South Western Pottery c.1856–1967 Salterns Pier 1867–1922 Poole Poole Quay Line Somerset and Dorset Railway to Broadstone Holes Bay Causeway Southampton and Dorchester Railway to Broadstone Hamworthy Hamworthy Freight Branch to Poole Docks Royal Navy Cordite Factory Holton Heath Sandford Pottery Wareham Swanage Railway Bovington Camp Wool UKAEA Winfrith Moreton Woodsford Halt 1920–1929 Dorchester South unbuilt line to Exeter Heart of Wessex Line Dorchester West Dorchester Junction Monkton and Came Halt 1905–1957 Bincombe Tunnel Upwey Wishing Well Halt 1905–1957 Abbotsbury Railway 1885–1952 Upwey Radipole Halt 1905–1984 Portland Branch Line 1902–1952 (passengers) 1902–1965 (goods) Weymouth Weymouth Harbour Tramway Weymouth Quay

The South Western Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including suburbs of London such as around Hampton Court Palace and the conurbations based on Southampton and Bournemouth. It runs through the counties of Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset.

It briefly runs alongside the Windsor and Reading lines (the "Windsor lines") which terminate also at Waterloo. It has many branches, including a line to Dorking, the three lines to Guildford one of which proceeds to Portsmouth and the West of England Main Line which spurs off after Basingstoke in Hampshire to terminate officially at Exeter. Together with these, it forms the core of the network built by the London and South Western Railway, today mostly operated by South Western Railway. Network Rail refers to it as the South West Main Line.

Much of the line is relatively high-speed, with large stretches cleared for up to 100 mph (160 km/h) running. The London end of the line has as many as eight tracks plus the two Windsor Lines built separately, but this narrows to four south-west of Wimbledon and continues this way until Worting Junction west of Basingstoke, from which point most of the line is two tracks. A couple of miles from the Waterloo terminus, the line runs briefly alongside the Brighton Main Line west branch out of London Victoria, including through Clapham Junction – the busiest station in Europe by railway traffic. Tourist special services to a lesser frequency use the line such as the Cathedrals Express and Alton is a rail connection to a shorter heritage service, the Watercress Line.

The inceptive part of the line in the London Borough of Lambeth was used from 1994 to 2007 by Eurostar trains running out of 'London Waterloo International' requiring trains in this period to have a shoegear to run off the line's third rail DC electrification, following which the Central London terminus for direct European services became St Pancras International.

Proposal

Several companies had proposed building a faster and heavy goods reliable link from London to the South Coast around Southampton, which would have provided not only a route for commodities and passengers but one for munitions and military personnel in the event of war. At the time, Southampton was smaller than the nearby port of Portsmouth, but since Portsmouth's harbour was already well-developed due to naval operations, Southampton was the priority destination for a new railway having wide scope for development.

In 1831, the Southampton, London & Branch Railway and Docks Company (SL&BRDC) was formed, a precursor to the London and South Western Railway. The company planned to build a railway line to Southampton, but were also interested in building a line from halfway down their route towards Bristol via Newbury and Devizes. In that year the Basingstoke Canal company suggested instead that a link be built between their canal, built 1794, and the Itchen Navigation. The suggestion was rejected by those working on the railway plans and the canal company agreed not to oppose the railway.^[1]

The chosen route to Southampton was not direct as it adopted a compromise axis about one third of the way down for a westward Bristol line, never built. This axis terminates shortly after the conurbation on the line of Basingstoke, then an agrarian market town. The route therefore missed the towns of Guildford, Farnham and Alton which would have boosted early revenue. The railway was also forced narrowly to bypass the town of Kingston-upon-Thames^[2] due to the commercial justification that the railway would damage the town's importance for stagecoaches combined with the cost of furrowing a line through the town's easterly hill. The city of Winchester north of Southampton was included in the built and in the unbuilt proposal, seeing its station open in 1839.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) secured its patrons for a far more direct route to Bristol, particularly influential landowners in Berkshire and Wiltshire. The GWR received Parliamentary authority and shortly afterwards the Southampton railway. The SL&BRDC held to its chosen route including Basingstoke, though changed its name to the London and Southampton Railway, and later the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR). Throughout the 19th century, the L&SWR and Great Western Railway were often in competition with each other over serving destinations and frequently sought and gained permission to build railways into each other's intended "territory".

Construction

The first section to be opened was from Nine Elms, the LSWR's first London terminus, in Battersea, to Woking (then named Woking Common) on 21 May 1838.

The remainder of the main line followed over the next two years:

• Woking to Winchfield (Shapley Heath): 24 September 1838


• Winchfield to Basingstoke: 10 June 1839


• Winchester to Southampton: 10 June 1839


• Basingstoke to Winchester: 11 May 1840. This last section was the most difficult on the route with a long initial climb necessitating earthworks to Litchfield Tunnel and on a ten-mile descent to Winchester which lies on the River Itchen.

The Southampton and Dorchester Railway

The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was also formed and built a line from 1845 to 1847 from Southampton to Dorchester. It avoided Bournemouth, then barely a village, and ran via Wimborne Minster and Ringwood before reaching Dorchester. It took a winding route, which followed the easiest-to-construct links rather than linking settlements in a straight line. In particular, due to intervention by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, the route between Southampton and Ringwood had to take a southward diversion through Brockenhurst, rather than the straight route through Lyndhurst that the company had envisioned.^[3] The line also bypassed Poole. Initially, Poole was served by a branch from Hamworthy (initially named Poole Junction) to a station on the opposite side of Holes Bay.

The Ringwood line was nicknamed as 'Castleman's Corkscrew' after Charles Castleman, a major figure in the enterprise.^[4] The line was originally planned to continue towards Exeter, but this never came into effect. In 1865 the railway was connected to the GWR line to Weymouth, which now forms the current terminus of the line.

A branch was built in the 1870s from Broadstone to central Poole that continued eastwards to Bournemouth, a town that was now developing as a seaside resort. From 1886-88, a line was then built from Brockenhurst to Bournemouth. A causeway was also built across Holes Bay to connect Poole to Hamworthy. In time, the straighter route through Bournemouth and Poole superseded the Ringwood line. The Ringwood line was closed by the Beeching Axe.

Rival lines and services

The L&SWR's biggest rival was the Great Western Railway (GWR) who had originally cut the L&SWR's plans by building the line to Bristol. Both companies built several railways from their own networks into each other's intended territory.

In 1848, the GWR built a branch from Reading to Basingstoke. At first this was a fairly quiet railway with a terminus separate from the L&SWR's mainline station. However, when the rival company adopted standard gauge, a link was constructed between the two lines. This later became used for a freight route from Southampton to the Midlands via Oxford. Following the closure of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, this route became used by long-distance services from Bournemouth to the Midlands.

Another line was built in 1873 southward (Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway). Originally, L&SWR ruled out allowing the line to use its own track. However the DN&SR fell into financial difficulties, and negotiations allowed its trains to use the South Western Main Line south of Winchester.

GWR also proposed building a line from Reading to Portsmouth via Basingstoke and Alton but L&SWR found a cheaper solution for building the northern stretch from Basingstoke to Alton by using a light railway. The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway stopped a rival's Portsmouth line from being built at the all-too-common cost of being, for most of its existence, unprofitable - it saw an eight-year resurrection but again became loss-making and closed in 1932 save for goods. In 1955 similarly the southern stretch, the Meon Valley Railway, closed to passengers.

Infrastructure

Track

Between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction, the line has eight tracks. It runs over the Nine Elms to Waterloo Viaduct for much of its length. It crosses beneath the Chatham Main Line where the Brighton Main Line runs alongside it on the southern side. At Clapham Junction, some of these tracks leave on the Waterloo to Reading Line and the remaining tracks are reduced to four. The Brighton Line, which also has four tracks, separates from it shortly afterwards.

The four tracks initially have a pair of "slow" tracks to the east with the two "fast" tracks on the western side. This arrangement continues to north of Wimbledon where a flyover transfers the northbound slow line across the fast lines, leaving the inner tracks being used for the fast services and the stopping services using the outer tracks. This arrangement continues to Worting Junction, just after Basingstoke. Many stations on this section had island platforms which have since been removed - this is evident with wide gaps between station platforms as stations such as Winchfield. The island platforms survive at New Malden, Esher and Walton-on-Thames, with the latter now covered in weeds.

The line continues as double-track to Winchester but expands to three tracks through Shawford station with one up platform and fast and slow down platforms. There are four tracks from Shawford to Eastleigh. The line from Romsey via Chandler's Ford trails in just north of Eastleigh which is also the junction for the Fareham line. The line returns to double track until St Denys where the West Coastway Line trails in. At Northam the original route to Southampton Terminus carries on south towards Eastern Docks and the main route curves west to enter a tunnel through to Southampton Central station.

The line remains double-tracked most of the way to Weymouth, but there is a single-track section between Moreton and Dorchester South which constrains capacity.^[5]

Electrification

The 'Surrey section', about half of which has become Greater London, was electrified, as far west as Pirbright Junction (for Alton) using the (750 V DC third rail) system, by the London & South Western Railway or its successor, the Southern Railway before World War II.

The bulk of the line (that is from Pirbright Junction to Bournemouth/Bournemouth Depot) was electrified in 1967. From then until 1988 trains on the Bournemouth to Weymouth section operated a push-pull system. One or two BR Class 438 4-TC units would be propelled from London to Bournemouth by a BR Class 432 4-REP unit, controlled from the leading cab of the former. At Bournemouth, one or both of the Class 438 4-TCs would continue over the unelectrified line to Weymouth hauled by a BR Class 33/1 diesel locomotive. Trains from Weymouth would follow the same procedure in reverse.

Electrification was extended to Weymouth in 1988 and saw the introduction of the new BR Class 442 5-WES Wessex Electric trains. These were withdrawn by February 2007; Class 444 5-DES and Class 450 4-DES trains are now used.

Services

The majority of passenger services are currently operated by South Western Railway. Other passengers services are operated by CrossCountry.

Intercity

Intercity services run as follows (Monday-Saturday off-peak):

• Two trains per hour from London Waterloo to Weymouth, with:
  
  • One calling at Woking, Winchester, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Brockenhurst, Bournemouth, all stations to Hamworthy, Wareham, Dorchester South and Weymouth. This is the only scheduled service which passes through Basingstoke without stopping.
  
  
  • One calling at Clapham Junction, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Brockenhurst, New Milton, Christchurch, Pokesdown, Bournemouth, Poole and all stations to Weymouth. This is one of only two scheduled services per hour not to stop at Woking.
  
  


• Three CrossCountry trains every two hours, most calling at Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Brockenhurst and Bournemouth:
  
  • One between Southampton Central and Newcastle via Birmingham New Street (2-hourly)
  
  
  • One between Bournemouth and Manchester Piccadilly via Birmingham New Street (hourly)
  
  


• Two trains per hour between London Waterloo and Salisbury (of which one per hour continues to Exeter St. David's), calling at Clapham Junction (alternate trains only), Woking and Basingstoke before branching off on the West of England Main Line.


• During the Wimbledon tennis championships, some long-distance trains between Waterloo and a variety of destinations make an additional stop at Wimbledon in the morning on the up fast line from around 10am to 12.30pm and on the down fast line from 7pm until midnight.^[6]

Regional

• One train per hour to Poole (stopping service), calling at Clapham Junction, Farnborough (Main), Fleet, Basingstoke, Winchester, Shawford, Eastleigh, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Totton, Ashurst New Forest, Brockenhurst and all stations to Poole.


• One train per hour to Portsmouth Harbour, calling at Woking, Farnborough (Main), Basingstoke, Micheldever, Winchester and Eastleigh, before branching off to serve the Eastleigh to Fareham line.

Outer suburban

• Two trains per hour between London Waterloo and Alton, calling at Clapham Junction (alternate trains only), Surbiton, West Byfleet, Woking and Brookwood before continuing to Alton down the Alton Line.


• Two trains per hour between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, calling at Clapham Junction (alternate trains only), Surbiton, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge, Woking and all stations to Basingstoke.


• On Sundays, trains on these routes additionally call at Wimbledon.

Commuter

There are also many commuter services serving London. Those of note are:

• Two trains per hour between London Waterloo and Woking, calling at Vauxhall, Clapham Junction, Earlsfield, Wimbledon, Surbiton and all stations to Woking.


• Two trains per hour between London Waterloo and Hampton Court, calling at Vauxhall, Clapham Junction and all stations to Surbiton before continuing down the Hampton Court Branch Line.


• Two trains per hour between London Waterloo and Guildford (via Cobham), calling at Vauxhall, Clapham Junction, Earlsfield, Wimbledon, Surbiton and all stations to Guildford via the New Guildford Line.


• One train per hour between Romsey and Salisbury via Southampton Central, using the Eastleigh to Romsey Line and part of the Wessex Main Line. Travelling in a 'figure of six' route, trains from Salisbury go to Romsey, then call at Redbridge and all stations to Eastleigh, where the train leaves the SWML to return to Romsey.

Future development

In July 2011, Network Rail in its London & South East Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) recommended adding a fifth track to the four-track stretch of line between Clapham Junction and Surbiton. This was found to be feasible within the existing land (rail corridor), and was seen as the most practicable way of providing more capacity on the route. It would permit up to eight additional trains to run in the peak hour, for a maximum of 32 trains in this stretch. The scheme would also entail more flexible track use, modifying one Windsor Line track to permit use by mainline trains. Options rejected in the RUS as not viable included double-deck trains, building a flyover at Woking, and introducing 12- or 16-car trains.^[7]

See also

• 
  Chelsea-Hackney line (possible route of proposed cross-London line to relieve congestion)


• 
  Crossrail 2 (plans to provide another cross-London set of routes and increase services to tourist destinations and suburban stations partly or wholly on the route)

References

External links

• Basingstoke's Railway History


• Network Rail's Route Utilisation Strategy for the South West Main Line

Bibliography

• 
  Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1.
  


• 
  Lucking, J.H. (1968). Railways of Dorset. Railway Correspondence and Travel Society.
  


• 
  Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1992). Branch Lines Around Wimborne. Middleton Press. ISBN 0-906520-97-5.
  

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  A Class 442 5-WES on the South Western Main Line at Poole
  

  
  

  
  


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  A Class 442 5-WES on the South Western Main Line at Holes Bay
  

  
  

  
  


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  Southern Region steam in Basingstoke.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Hersham.
  

  
  

  
  

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