Yeovil Junction - Exeter to become 2 hourly again from 10 August 2026

In news that will likely surprise no-one who's seen weather forecasts for SW England since May and or has familiarity with the Salisbury - Exeter line, Yeovil Junction - Exeter is becoming 2 hourly again from Monday 10 August, as can be seen here.


Marginal improvements on last year in that speed reductions will be 50mph rather than 40mph, and journeys will be extended by less than last year. Yeovil eastwards seems rather less affected, particularly for down trains. The timetable isn't out yet but I assume it's up trains which will now have to park up in a field in Wiltshire just east of Tisbury to allow down services to pass. rather than vice versa. Still frustrating but it seemed inevitable.

The line has been struggling worse than usual for a few days anyway due to a 20mph speed restriction just west of Seaton Junction. I was on a westbound 159 on Sunday which strugggled to build up speed on Honiton Bank when the restriction ended.

If this is going to become an annual problem then it would be nice if some additional loops could be put in as is widely accepted is needed just to run a reliable service, never mind enhancements, but there's plenty of threads on Speculative Discussion about this already.

Grecian 1998 said:

The timetable isn't out yet but I assume it's up trains which will now have to park up in a field in Wiltshire just east of Tisbury to allow down services to pass.

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Hopefully it won't be as long dwells at the delights of Gillingham this year, shame the café at the station closed before last year when services would pause there for at least 10 minutes as no doubt they would have made a bit of a killing.

That 20 mph restriction between Honiton & Axminster has just caused chaos for the last few days, as well as short formed trains increasing dwell times.

The plot of soil moisture deficit (SMD) from the SWR article linked above will probably be the real key over the next few months. SMD has been comparable to 2025 levels so far in 2026, but it remains to be seen when the peak will be and at what level.

Given that Super El Nino conditions are emerging in the tropical pacific, we can probably expect a wetter and milder early winter. At a surface level that would be good for this situation, but AIUI heavy rain is not preferable to consistent lighter rain which is better at returning moisture to the soil.


Above: a graph showing Average SMD through the year for 2024, 2025, and 2026. The 2026 curve is very close to the 2025 one.

On a side tangent, as a result of this can we expect to see the evening GWR stopping service re-instated which ran during last year’s temporary timetable?

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What'll be done with the current Feniton/Whimple skip-stopping? All trains serving both, or will one get temporarily closed?

Grecian 1998 said:

The timetable isn't out yet

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Given that advance fares are available for some trains that will inevitably be cancelled, and are already going up in price as the days pass, I expect some confusion and frustration among passengers with booked advances - and some crowding on the trains that do run.

At least Crewkerne is still open.

devon_belle said:

The plot of soil moisture deficit (SMD) from the SWR article linked above will probably be the real key over the next few months. SMD has been comparable to 2025 levels so far in 2026, but it remains to be seen when the peak will be and at what level.

Given that Super El Nino conditions are emerging in the tropical pacific, we can probably expect a wetter and milder early winter. At a surface level that would be good for this situation, but AIUI heavy rain is not preferable to consistent lighter rain which is better at returning moisture to the soil.

Above: a graph showing Average SMD through the year for 2024, 2025, and 2026. The 2026 curve is very close to the 2025 one.

Click to expand...

Easy solution there, just remove the retention tanks from the 159s

fgwrich said:

On a side tangent, as a result of this can we expect to see the evening GWR stopping service re-instated which ran during last year’s temporary timetable?

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Well, it's technically not withdrawn - it's just cancelled most nights for a variety of reasons, including sometimes Network Rail not wanting it to run when the rest of the service is up the swanny and taking up a valuable path!
A few cancellations were due to the 4 car 150 being multi only and not being able to split at St Davids, it then becomes a choice between cancelling the Axminster or the next Okehampton.