Given the prolonged hot spell I'm guessing another spell of speed restrictions and timetable adjustments are nigh.
Judging by the bottom of this page, I'd guess so:
How Soil Moisture Deficit affects the railway
www.southwesternrailway.com
The Salisbury Exeter Rail Users Group newsletter for June 2026 also considers it 'very likely'.
I wouldn't have picked Axminster as the busiest station on the line. Presumably it's got the Seaton & Lyme Regis catchment traffic, whatever that amounts to.
Axminster is a railhead for Bridport and Chard to a lesser extent as well as Seaton and Lyme. It's also the point at which journeys to Waterloo become quicker than going to Exeter for Paddington, so it has significant eastbound traffic as well as westbound. Honiton (3rd) is mainly focused on Exeter and Gillingham (2nd) on London.
Is there room at Chard Junction to reinstate the station there? Seems an obvious missing link
Chard Junction has been reviewed as a reopening and rejected in the past on the basis it will bring almost no new traffic to the line - people who currently drive to Axminster or Crewkerne would just drive there instead, whilst this would slow down the service even further. Chard is not within walking distance. Tatworth / South Chard is within walking distance but it isn't really large enough to generate new traffic, and there isn't anywhere obvious that people would migrate towards - Exeter and Salisbury are probably too far for commuting.
Given how common delays are under the current timetable, there really isn't any benefit in opening any new stations before any major infrastructure upgrades.
At Tisbury station itself? I've often wondered why the loop ends just before the station; just a very small extension and a restatement of the second platform would allow trains to pass there, knocking several minutes from delays there.
Under the 1967 singling scheme, there were 19 miles of single track from Gillingham to Wilton. It was then realised this was a tad problematic and a loop was needed. However, Tisbury down platform had been sold off in the meantime, so the only option was to build the loop outside the station, which happened in 1986.
In terms of building new embankments, most of the problem ones are out in open countryside so in theory there would be space to build a new alignment. I don't think any of them are near embankments or viaducts, although I could be wrong. However, whether the government would agree to use compulsory purchase orders in the event of farmers being reluctant to sell is another question.
The line itself has no chance of being fully redoubled in the current climate. Given the cost of reopening stations due to modern requirements, any new doubling is realistically going to be between stations. Redoubling between Cranbrook and Whimple and from Tisbury loop to Wilton, both away from the problem areas, would be massively helpful for timekeeping purposes. If a down train is 15 minutes late at Honiton currently, it will invariably sit there for 20 minutes waiting for the train it should have passed at Pinhoe, meaning it arrives at Exeter at the time it's due to leave to head back east.
