West of England Main Line

West of England Main Line
250px Templecombe station
Overview
Type	Suburban rail, Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Stations	23
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	South West Trains
Depot(s)	Salisbury TMD
Rolling stock	Class 158 "Express Sprinter" Class 159 "South Western Turbo"
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	90 mph maximum

West of England Main Line
Legend
0.00 London Waterloo South Western Main Line Reading to Basingstoke Line 47.76 Basingstoke Basingstoke & Alton Light Rly 50.26 Worting Junction and Battledown Flyover x20px x20px South Western Main Line to Southampton Oakley 55.56 Overton 59.08 Whitchurch Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway Hurstbourne Fullerton to Hurstbourne Line to Southampton via Longparish Sprat and Winkle Line to Southampton via Andover Town 66.24 Andover Red Post Junction Midland & South Western Jn Railway to Cheltenham 72.61 Grateley Amesbury and Military Camp Light Railway to Bulford Camp Idmiston Halt Porton Wessex Main Line to Southampton 83.48 Salisbury Wessex Main Line to Westbury Wilton South Barford St Martin Viaduct Dinton Fovant Military Railway 96.18 Tisbury Tisbury West Semley 105.23 Gillingham Gillingham Viaduct Buckhorn Weston Tunnel x20px Somerset & Dorset Joint Rly ← Bath • Bournemouth → 111.99 Templecombe Milborne Port Sherborne 118.05 Sherborne Heart of Wessex Line to Castle Cary Yeovil Pen Mill Heart of Wessex Line to Weymouth Yeovil Town Yeovil to Taunton Line 122.60 Yeovil Junction Sutton Bingham 131.41 Crewkerne Crewkerne Tunnel Hewish Chard Junction 139.44 Chard Junction Chard Branch Line Broom Axminster 144.51 Axminster Lyme Regis branch line Seaton Branch Line Seaton Junction Honiton Tunnel 154.70 Honiton Roundball Halt Sidmouth Railway River Otter viaduct 159.30 Feniton Feniton 163.03 Whimple Cannaford 166.15 Cranbrook Broad Clyst Pinhoe 168.55 Pinhoe Whipton Bridge Halt Avocet Line to Exmouth Exmouth Junction Mount Pleasant Road Halt Blackboy Tunnel 170.90 St James Park 171.38 Exeter Central St David's Tunnel Exeter to Plymouth line to Plymouth 172.15 Exeter St Davids Red Cow Crossing Cowley Bridge Junction Bristol to Exeter line to Taunton Tarka Line to Barnstaple

The West of England Main Line is a British railway line from Basingstoke, Hampshire to Exeter St Davids in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter. Despite its historic title, it is not today's principal route from London to the West of England: Exeter and everywhere further west is reached more quickly by First Great Western services from London Paddington. At Salisbury, the line intersects with the Wessex Main Line.

History

When all sections had been incorporated into the London and South Western Railway, they consisted of the following:

• 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 30 May 1936
  • 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
  • Bulford Camp branch
  • Salisbury to Romsey, with a branch to Bournemouth
  • 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. This route today is the Wessex Main Line.

• Between Salisbury and Exeter:
  • Salisbury — Yeovil opened 2 May 1859
  • Yeovil — Exeter opened 19 July 1860

• Branches:
  • To Yeovil Town joint station with the GWR
  • To Chard joint station with the GWR
  • To Lyme Regis from Axminster
  • To Seaton from Seaton Junction (closed)
  • To Sidmouth from Sidmouth Junction (also alternative route to Exmouth)
  • To Exmouth from Exmouth Junction near Exeter

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

Beyond Exeter, the line continued to Plymouth via Okehampton and Tavistock. This line is now closed, although the Dartmoor Railway heritage line is still existing as far as Okehampton, and the branch to Barnstaple which diverged off the route at Colebridge Junction is still in existence as the Tarka Line.

Route

Trains between London Waterloo and Exeter run on the South Western Main Line as far as Basingstoke. The West of England Line diverges from this line at Worting Junction, a short distance west of Basingstoke.

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

The line's speed limit is mainly 80–90 mph 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.

Current operations

File:Axminster 159006 159015.jpg

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. They generally run half-hourly from London to Salisbury and hourly to Exeter, calling at Clapham Junction, 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 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. The Axminster Loop is centred on Axminster station, and does not extend to Chard Junction as originally proposed. The line between basingstoke, Salisbury and Exeter is not electrified.

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]