I've searched and I don't think this topic has come up before on this forum, so I was wondering how you might change the SWR (pre-Covid) pattern if given the chance?
I have some ideas, which also do require some tweaks of other operators' services. These are focused on long-distance, not suburban.
Starting with the main line to Bournemouth. On balance I would keep the xx35 / xx05 pattern with the same stops between Waterloo and Bournemouth, but probably only extend one tph to Weymouth (the xx35 as that's slightly faster) except during the weekday peak and the summer season, as I would be surprised if there is a need for 2tph off-peak in the off-season. The xx05 would continue just to Wareham at other times, calling all stations beyond Bournemouth. The xx35 would skip Branksome and Parkstone.
I would re-time the Brockenhurst to Poole stopper to give a more even-interval service from places like New Milton, Christchurch and Pokesdown which has featured bunching of services in the up direction. To simplify things, the service would run as a Brockenhurst-Poole shuttle, which removes constraints arising from service patterns up-line. The down service is fairly sensibly timed. The up service is poorly timed (these stations have services which arrived at xx33 and xx45 at Brockenhurst). So I'd retime it to arrive Brockenhurst around xx10, connecting nicely into the xx15 fast to London, and also conveniently timed to turn round and form the next down stopper. This would mean making the XC leave Bournemouth a little earlier, with a slightly longer wait at Southampton.
Southampton to Brockenhurst would become an hourly shuttle, again to reduce constraints. A slot at around xx00 or so out of Southampton and xx30 return would give good connections into London services and allow the service to run as a one-unit shuttle. If 450s were used for this and the Brockenhurst-Poole shuttle, they could share the northmost platform (can never remember if this is 1 or 4). ALL services would call at Beaulieu Road!
Next thing I'd do is tackle the poor provision at Swaythling and St Denys. The former is just hourly; being within a city and close to university accommodation, I'd say it deserves 2tph. The latter has suffered from extreme bunching for many years with the two tph to and from Central timed at almost the same time in the hour. Furthermore the local service has poor connections at Parkway into Waterloo services.
At times of engineering work, they appear to use an xx18 path out of Southampton Central for the local stopper. This gives a better spread of services to Eastleigh (the semi-fast leaving at xx55) and also gives a nice connection into the xx30 to Waterloo at Parkway. So I'd employ this slot in the hour, rather than the poor xx35 slot. The service would terminate at Romsey as now but would not run through from Salisbury, the Southampton-Salisbury service being fully provided by GWR with the Trans Wilts taking up Dunbridge and Dean.
Furthermore the xx55 Southampton-Waterloo semi-fast and v.v would call at St Denys and Swaythling throughout the day, giving the latter a 2tph service, departing perhaps 3 mins earlier from Southampton and arriving 3 minutes later. It would no longer match up with the Brockenhurst-Southampton shuttle (see above) so would become a separate working. It could interwork, perhaps, with the new Southampton-Portsmouth semi-fast described below, the timings would be about right.
Contentiously, Southern trains could be reduced to 1tph, running to Gatwick (and Victoria) via Hove and hoovering up both the Brighton and Gatwick markets. Would become limited stop: Swanwick, Fareham, Cosham, Havant, Chichester, Barnham, Worthing, Shoreham, Hove and Haywards Heath only before Gatwick, mirroring the service of the 90s and restoring fast services along Coastway West - which currently do not exist apart from occasional GWR services. Perhaps these could be 8-car rather than 4, particularly at peak times. Then, with a less congested Southampton-Fareham corridor, a semi-fast Southampton to Portsmouth could be introduced leaving around xx25, giving reasonably good intervals with both the GWR fast and the stopper, calling only at St Denys, Woolston, Netley, Swanwick, Fareham, Cosham, Fratton, PSS, PH.
The other routes I think I'm fairly happy with the service pattern, although as I live in Southampton I am more aware of the shortcomings of the service in this area than other areas. Perhaps one change I would make is more of an 00, 10, 30, 40 service pattern on the Portsmouth Direct if that was at all possible, allowing the slower Portsmouth service to proceed to Portsmouth without being looped at Haslemere, improving services for Liphook, Liss and Rowlands Castle.
I have some ideas, which also do require some tweaks of other operators' services. These are focused on long-distance, not suburban.
Starting with the main line to Bournemouth. On balance I would keep the xx35 / xx05 pattern with the same stops between Waterloo and Bournemouth, but probably only extend one tph to Weymouth (the xx35 as that's slightly faster) except during the weekday peak and the summer season, as I would be surprised if there is a need for 2tph off-peak in the off-season. The xx05 would continue just to Wareham at other times, calling all stations beyond Bournemouth. The xx35 would skip Branksome and Parkstone.
I would re-time the Brockenhurst to Poole stopper to give a more even-interval service from places like New Milton, Christchurch and Pokesdown which has featured bunching of services in the up direction. To simplify things, the service would run as a Brockenhurst-Poole shuttle, which removes constraints arising from service patterns up-line. The down service is fairly sensibly timed. The up service is poorly timed (these stations have services which arrived at xx33 and xx45 at Brockenhurst). So I'd retime it to arrive Brockenhurst around xx10, connecting nicely into the xx15 fast to London, and also conveniently timed to turn round and form the next down stopper. This would mean making the XC leave Bournemouth a little earlier, with a slightly longer wait at Southampton.
Southampton to Brockenhurst would become an hourly shuttle, again to reduce constraints. A slot at around xx00 or so out of Southampton and xx30 return would give good connections into London services and allow the service to run as a one-unit shuttle. If 450s were used for this and the Brockenhurst-Poole shuttle, they could share the northmost platform (can never remember if this is 1 or 4). ALL services would call at Beaulieu Road!
Next thing I'd do is tackle the poor provision at Swaythling and St Denys. The former is just hourly; being within a city and close to university accommodation, I'd say it deserves 2tph. The latter has suffered from extreme bunching for many years with the two tph to and from Central timed at almost the same time in the hour. Furthermore the local service has poor connections at Parkway into Waterloo services.
At times of engineering work, they appear to use an xx18 path out of Southampton Central for the local stopper. This gives a better spread of services to Eastleigh (the semi-fast leaving at xx55) and also gives a nice connection into the xx30 to Waterloo at Parkway. So I'd employ this slot in the hour, rather than the poor xx35 slot. The service would terminate at Romsey as now but would not run through from Salisbury, the Southampton-Salisbury service being fully provided by GWR with the Trans Wilts taking up Dunbridge and Dean.
Furthermore the xx55 Southampton-Waterloo semi-fast and v.v would call at St Denys and Swaythling throughout the day, giving the latter a 2tph service, departing perhaps 3 mins earlier from Southampton and arriving 3 minutes later. It would no longer match up with the Brockenhurst-Southampton shuttle (see above) so would become a separate working. It could interwork, perhaps, with the new Southampton-Portsmouth semi-fast described below, the timings would be about right.
Contentiously, Southern trains could be reduced to 1tph, running to Gatwick (and Victoria) via Hove and hoovering up both the Brighton and Gatwick markets. Would become limited stop: Swanwick, Fareham, Cosham, Havant, Chichester, Barnham, Worthing, Shoreham, Hove and Haywards Heath only before Gatwick, mirroring the service of the 90s and restoring fast services along Coastway West - which currently do not exist apart from occasional GWR services. Perhaps these could be 8-car rather than 4, particularly at peak times. Then, with a less congested Southampton-Fareham corridor, a semi-fast Southampton to Portsmouth could be introduced leaving around xx25, giving reasonably good intervals with both the GWR fast and the stopper, calling only at St Denys, Woolston, Netley, Swanwick, Fareham, Cosham, Fratton, PSS, PH.
The other routes I think I'm fairly happy with the service pattern, although as I live in Southampton I am more aware of the shortcomings of the service in this area than other areas. Perhaps one change I would make is more of an 00, 10, 30, 40 service pattern on the Portsmouth Direct if that was at all possible, allowing the slower Portsmouth service to proceed to Portsmouth without being looped at Haslemere, improving services for Liphook, Liss and Rowlands Castle.
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