West of England line

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:West of England Main Line The West of England line (also known as the West of England Main Line) is a railway line from Basingstoke, Hampshire, to Exeter St Davids in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter via the South West Main Line; the line intersects with the Wessex Main Line at Salisbury.

The line was constructed by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) and the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway between 1854 and 1860, with the L&SWR eventually gaining full operation. Although it was once a significant connection from London to Southwest England, it has declined in importance since the years following the 1963 Beeching Report. Exeter can be reached more quickly from London Paddington via the Reading–Taunton line, with this route providing the only direct route to destinations west of Exeter since 2009. However, the West of England line is still important as a freight and diversionary route.

Route

Trains between London Waterloo and Exeter run on the South West Main Line as far as Basingstoke. The West of England Line diverges at Worting Junction, a short distance west. North of Worting Junction, stopping services to/from London Waterloo and CrossCountry services to/from the North of England via Reading use the outer pair of tracks, while express services to/from London Waterloo use the inner pair of tracks. The inner pair of tracks are unelectrified through the junction and continue west to Salisbury and Exeter.

From here, the route heads generally westwards to Salisbury, where there is a connection with the Wessex Main Line, then over the Heart of Wessex Line without a junction just before Yeovil Junction. There is a connection to the Avocet Line just before Exeter. The line passes through Exeter Central before ending at Exeter St Davids. Overall, it passes through five counties – Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Devon.

Network Rail splits the line into two sections: the first section from the line's start at Worting Junction to Wilton Junction (near Salisbury) is classified as "London & SE commuter", while the rest is a "secondary" route. The secondary route west of Salisbury is predominantly single track, but has three sections of double track and four passing loops. The double track sections and passing loops are: a loop just outside Tisbury station, a loop at Gillingham station, double track from Templecombe to Yeovil Junction, a loop at the former Chard Junction station, 3 miles of double track centred on Axminster, a loop at Honiton station, and double track from Pinhoe to Exeter.

The line has a similar route to the parallel A303 road, which runs from Basingstoke to Honiton.

The line's speed limit is mainly at or above over its whole length from Basingstoke to Exeter. Speed is further limited around the junctions. The first section to Wilton Junction has a listed line speed of 50–90 mph, and the secondary section to Exeter has a line speed of mainly 85 mph with parts at 70 mph.

There are two depots on the line operated by the South Western Railway. The traincare depot is at Salisbury, while the traincrew depot is at Yeovil Junction.

History

Construction

The line was constructed in stages completed between 1854 and 1860, and eventually was wholly operated by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR). The sections and branches opened as follows:

• Basingstoke to Salisbury
  • Basingstoke to Andover, opened 3 July 1854
  • Andover to Salisbury, opened 1 May 1857
  • Branches:
    • Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened June 1901, closed 12 September 1932
    • From Hurstbourne and Andover to Romsey and on to Eastleigh and Southampton: both closed. Link via Longparish opened 1 June 1885; closed 6 July 1931
    • At Andover, junction with the Midland and South Western Junction Railway to Cheltenham; open 6 March 1865, closed 7 September 1964
    • Bulford Camp branch, open 1 June 1906; closed 4 March 1963
    • At Salisbury, the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from Westbury and Bristol had its own terminus: the L&SWR continued the route southeast towards Southampton. The two stations were amalgamated on 12 September 1932. This route is known nowadays as the Wessex Main Line.
• Between Salisbury and Exeter:
  • Salisbury to Gillingham, opened 2 May 1859
  • Gillingham to Sherborne, opened 7 May 1860
  • Sherbone to Yeovil, opened 1 June 1860
  • Yeovil to Exeter Central, opened 19 July 1860
  • Exeter Central to Exeter St Davids, opened 1 February 1862
  • Branches:
    • To Yeovil Town (joint station with the GWR), opened 1 June 1861, closed 3 October 1966
    • To Chard (joint station with the GWR), opened 11 September 1866, closed 10 September 1962
    • To Lyme Regis from Axminster, opened 24 August 1903, closed 29 November 1965
    • To Seaton from Seaton Junction, opened 16 March 1868, closed 7 March 1966
    • To Sidmouth from Sidmouth Junction (also alternative route to Exmouth), opened 6 July 1874
    • To Exmouth from Exmouth Junction near Exeter, opened 1 May 1861

There had been plans to construct a direct line from London to Exeter since the beginning of railways. Although the Great Western Railway (GWR) were the first to construct a line to Exeter in 1844, this went via Bristol. The L&SWR had opened a line to Salisbury on 1 March 1847, which ran via Southampton. They had agreed with the Southampton & Dorchester Railway that they would not construct any lines west of Salisbury or Dorchester, but changed their stance following the opening of the GWR route.

The section from Salisbury to Yeovil was originally constructed by the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway. To allow an easy transfer at Salisbury, the original station at Milford was closed and rerouted to its current site at Fisherton on 2 May 1859. The section from Yeovil to Exeter involved a lengthy tunnel near Honiton, constructed from 11 million bricks. The tunnel has since been closed on occasion because of drainage problems owing to nearby natural springs.

Later history

File:Yeovil Junction Signal Box 159018 159107.jpg

Yeovil Junction

The line was upgraded from single to double track in the 1860s, and was complete by 1 July 1870; most bridges had been built to accommodate two tracks. When the line was first opened in 1854, Worting Junction was constructed as a flat junction, which required that down trains heading west and up trains from Southampton cross each other's paths. Initially this was not a great concern, but as traffic and speeds increased the junction became a bottleneck. To relieve this, a flying junction was provided to the south, opening on 30 May 1897. This changed the arrangement so that up trains from Southampton line now crossed over the up and down Salisbury lines on Battledown Flyover, west of Basingstoke.

A rail motor service was introduced between Exeter and Honiton in 1906, but was soon cancelled.

After the Second World War, the line initially saw heavy investment from British Rail following nationalisation, with services including the Atlantic Express service from Waterloo to various points past Exeter, and a regular service from Brighton to Plymouth. The line speed past Salisbury was increased to in 1949. However, control of the section west of Salisbury was transferred from the Southern to the Western region in 1963, which led it into direct comparisons with the Paddington – Taunton – Exeter service and concerns over its viability.

The Beeching Reports in the 1960s identified duplication of routes from London to the West Country, and concluded the West of England line was redundant, as it carried 20% of the overall traffic between London and Exeter compared to the route via Paddington and the Reading–Taunton line. A complete closure west of Salisbury was rumoured. Instead, the proposal was to reduce long sections west of Salisbury to single track, close minor stations, and reduce services to one train every two hours. All services beyond Exeter had been withdrawn by 1968. The proposal was toned down after concerns with overcrowding, and a section between Templecombe and Yeovil Junction was retained as double track. A passing loop at Tisbury opened on 24 March 1986.

The line has never been considered for electrification, and consequently all rolling stock has been steam, then diesel. Pinhoe station re-opened in 1982, followed by Templecombe a year later. By the 1980s, the line was clearly in decline, with limited traffic and unsatisfactory locomotive stock. However, services began to improve after the introduction of British Rail Class 159s in 1993. Services began running beyond Exeter again in 1992, and continued until 2009. Additional Class 159s and British Rail Class 158s were introduced in 2006/07, having previously been used on the TransPennine Express route.

An additional passing loop was constructed at Axminster in 2009, allowing hourly services to run between Waterloo and Exeter St David's.

Current operations

Passengers

File:Honiton - SWR 159003 down train.JPG

A Class 159 at Honiton

Passenger services are operated by South Western Railway using Class 158 and Class 159 trains. They generally run half-hourly from London to Salisbury and hourly to Exeter, calling at Clapham Junction and/or Woking and then most stations between Basingstoke and Exeter St Davids, although some smaller stations east of Salisbury and near Exeter have a reduced service. The fastest typical off-peak time between Waterloo and Exeter is 3 hours 24 minutes.

The 2006 Network Rail South West Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy recommended building an extended section of double track from Chard Junction to Axminster, and a passing loop at Whimple. However, Network Rail's 2008 Route Plan did not mention this.

Freight

The West of England line carries a significant amount of goods traffic such as aggregate, sand, quarried stone and spoil. At the eastern end, there is a branch line to the Ministry of Defence site at Ludgershall. Freight from Southampton Docks is sometimes sent via this route. The line also acts as an important freight diversion when there are closures on the Reading–Taunton line or on the South Western Main Line through Winchester. Historically, the line carried a significant amount of milk from Chard, which continued until March 1980.

Future

There have been proposals to electrify the line. In 2025, train operator South Western Railway estimated that their Class 159 and 158s would reach the end of their life by 2030. As an alternative to replacement by diesels or electrification, a proposal has been made for battery-operated trains with intermittent third rail charging points.

Following the 2024 general election, the incoming Labour government cancelled the A303 Stonehenge road tunnel; study group Greengauge 21 recommended improving the West of England line instead. The single track sections have particularly affected growth to the east of Exeter, and re-dualling the track between there and Axminster would allow a Devon Metro service to operate, with more frequent short-distance trains. In reply to a written question in Parliament in May 2025, Lilian Greenwood, the parliamentary undersecretary for the Department for Transport, responded that there were no plans to improve the West of England line at that time.

See also

• Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR
• Rail services in the West of England
• Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury

External links

• I visited every station on the West of England line – Jen on the Move, via YouTube