SWR "Summer timetable"

[Goldfish62]

Buried in the SWR website if you happen to scroll down the "plan my journey" page there's an entry which states that a summer timetable will operate from 28th July until 29th August, ie the school holiday period. The routes listed are mostly mainline suburban and Windsor lines routes, plus Alton, but no clue is given as to what the changes are other than they are "minor" and we should check journey planners.

Summer timetable from Monday 28 July to Friday 29 August
Accordion title
A summer timetable will be in place, with minor alterations to services, on the following routes from Monday 28 July until Friday 29 August:
· Alton
· Chessington South
· Guildford via Cobham & Stoke D’Abernon
· Guildford via Woking
· Hampton Court
· London Waterloo via Richmond
· Reading
· Shepperton
· Weybridge via Chertsey
· Windsor & Eton Riverside
· Woking (stopping services)
Please plan ahead using our journey planner.

Live Train Times & Travel Information | South Western Railway

Our journey planner provides live train times and train disruption information. Plan your journey and check for changes that might affect your journey

www.southwesternrailway.com

That's about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Can anyone enlighten us as to what the changes are? Are they the odd minute here or there, or are whole journeys removed, for example?

 

[43055]

Real Time Trains shows a number of planned cancelled services on the listed routes.

Realtime Trains | Just a moment

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Brubulus]

Real Time Trains shows a number of planned cancelled services on the listed routes.

Realtime Trains | Just a moment

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I'm assuming this is due to crew shortages due to annual leave instead of re-assigning suburban units to strengthen long distance leisure journeys.

 

[Goldfish62]

I'm assuming this is due to crew shortages due to annual leave instead of re-assigning suburban units to strengthen long distance leisure journeys.

Well, they certainly wouldn't be reassigning 455s and 701s to long distance leisure journeys!

The lines affected cover the depots being trained on 701s, so I'd suggest it's to allow training to continue at the current rate during the hols.

 

[Class15]

In the cancelled services for the morning peak, all of them seem to be departures from Waterloo. Where are the trains that worked inbound now going to go if their departures are cancelled?

 

[Peter Wilde]

Agree this notice on the SWR website is unbelievably unhelpful. It requires all users to seek further information by entering the details of their intended journey into the longwinded journey planner. Why not provide a link to the actual timetable for each route - which regular commuters are very familiar with - with the changes, especially cancelled services in this “summer timetable” all clearly marked up? Or just list the reductions/changes to the regular timetable in a short new document?

The railway is so bad at providing easy-access relevant information. They forget that users may not be at the stage of planning an actual journey on a specific date, they may just want to think ahead and find out “when is the best day for my journey or most likely travel times to avoid being caught out by these unwanted gaps in the "summer” service?

 

[MasterPhillips]

Really poor, as per usual with SWR. No doubt they will find some excuse for this. If it is for 701 training then the short term ”minor” disruption should be worth it eventually.

Having an hour gap between services on the Reading line between the 06:20 and 07:20 departures is very poor. Obviously leaves a gap at Reading too, between 08:09 and 09:09.

 

[bb21]

I'm not in a position to type it all out so whoever has the time can expand on these. All the following are cancelled, subject to final confirmation, in pairs of out and back workings:

Reading: 2C11/2C22, 2C27/2C38, 2C31/2C42, 2C45/2C56
Windsor: 2U15/2U22, 2U33/2U40, 2U63/2U70, 2U75/-
Weybridge: 2S09/2S18, 2S13/2S22, 2S35/2S44, 2S43/2S52, 2S57/2S66
Hounslow: 2V13
Alton: 1A11/1A24, 1A17/1A30
Chessington: 2M21/2M28, 2M25/2M32, 2M31/2M38, 2M37/2M44, plus FO 2M41/2M48
Hampton Court: 2J19/2J26, 2J25/2J32, 2J41/2J48
Shepperton: 2H41/2H50
Woking: 2F09/2F96, 2F15/2F24, -/2F28, 2F27/2F36, 2F31/2F40, 2F37/2F46
Teddington: 2O13, 2O17, 2O35
Guildford via new line: -/2G10, 2G07/2G20, 2G11/2F20 (latter via Woking), 2G27/2G38, 2G47/-, plus FO 2G31/2G42, FO -/2G60, and FSX 2G35/2G46

 

[Stephen42]

In the cancelled services for the morning peak, all of them seem to be departures from Waterloo. Where are the trains that worked inbound now going to go if their departures are cancelled?

Currently only cancellations to passenger services are entered. Some corresponding empty stock workings haven't been removed (5A11 shouldn't be needed if 2A11 doesn't run). At a guess the final amendments might remove inbound empty stock workings or add wait in platforms before running in outbound unused stock paths/add new ones. Taking the first cancellation 2S09 from Waterloo, they might remove 5U09 into Waterloo at the adjacent platform 4 minutes after and use the stock from the cancelled 2S09 for 2U09.

 

[Craig1122]

The railway is so bad at providing easy-access relevant information. They forget that users may not be at the stage of planning an actual journey on a specific date, they may just want to think ahead and find out “when is the best day for my journey or most likely travel times to avoid being caught out by these unwanted gaps in the "summer” service?

Agreed. Some of us have recently shelled out over £3k for a season ticket on the basis of a 30 minute service and would just like to know if we can still get to/from work without an extended delay and without having to enter every possible shift & date into the journey planner!

 

[davews]

I'm not in a position to type it all out so whoever has the time can expand on these. All the following are cancelled, subject to final confirmation, in pairs of out and back workings:

Reading: 2C11/2C22, 2C27/2C38, 2C31/2C42, 2C45/2C56

Oh dear, 2C22 is the train I always catch when heading up to town, a very well used service and the first off peak one.

 

[30907]

Calling it a "summer timetable" is misleading IMO: the phrase suggests that it is a response to changed patterns of travel, whereas clearly it is a thinning out of diagrams in response to changed availability of staff.
Now if they had decided to operate a SO timetable during the week, that could conceivably be described as a summer timetable (it's common enough across Europe - Paris RER for example).

 

[markle]

Real Time Trains shows a number of planned cancelled services on the listed routes.

Realtime Trains | Just a moment

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

My goodness what a passenger unfriendly way to do it.

The cancellations are all at sporadic intervals (i.e. every 90/120 mins), so for anyone who is used to the "clockface" times at their local station, there's no simple adjustment- just what will feel to passengers as annoying "random" missing trains.

I can understand the operational simplicity of just removing certain diagrams, but it would have been far, far more passenger friendly to have a simple set of changes repeated throughout the day (e.g. Chessington and Kingston rounders move to hourly off peak).

 

[MasterPhillips]

It would have been good if they had explained the reason why they are doing this. If it is a shortage of train crew then this could end up being a yearly thing. If is partly to keep training for the 701s going then most people would, whilst not being happy, would at least understand it.

 

[bb21]

It would have been good if they had explained the reason why they are doing this. If it is a shortage of train crew then this could end up being a yearly thing. If is partly to keep training for the 701s going then most people would, whilst not being happy, would at least understand it.

Pretty much, it is to ensure sufficient staff can be released for training in what is traditionally a challenging time for availability so this is just a resilience measure. If either factor were not present this would likely have not been needed.

 

[Watershed]

Pretty much, it is to ensure sufficient staff can be released for training in what is traditionally a challenging time for availability so this is just a resilience measure. If either factor were not present this would likely have not been needed.

Shame that the GBR era seems to be continuing in the same vein as the privatised one, rather than going for higher levels of accountability and transparency.

 

[boiledbeans2]

In the SWR Metro fleet withdrawal thread, it seems a lot of 455s are being sent to the scrapyard, with a lot of 4-car single units running around.

SWR outgoing Metro fleet withdrawals (complete)

Thread to keep track of the withdrawals of South Western Railway suburban stock, as part of the replacement by Class 701 trains. As of 24 December 2025, Class 456 and Class 707 have been entirely scrapped and transferred to SouthEastern respectively. Class 455 has no more booked workings...

www.railforums.co.uk

Is this the real reason for the reduced timetable? And that they hope they can get sufficient 701s in service before they switch back to the regular timetable?

 

[bb21]

Is this the real reason for the reduced timetable? And that they hope they can get sufficient 701s in service before they switch back to the regular timetable?

No. There is a significant surplus of 455s on the book.

 

[Craig1122]

Of course these cuts pile on top of the already reduced timetable when compared to pre covid. In 2004 someone travelling on the Hounslow loop would have waited no more than 15 minutes for a train, now it will be up to an hour. And this during the school holidays when off peak traffic is higher and in an area which has seen substantial residential development since then.

SWR has lagged other operators for growth and given a succession of own goals like this it's hardly surprising.

 

[Bikeman78]

They have managed to cancel consecutive trains heading up from Wimbledon leaving a 14 minute gap and a 15 minute gap. Earlsfield has an 18 minute gap.

Edit: Also, in what world is the 1633 from Waterloo to Guildford a quiet off peak service?

 

[Goldfish62]

Shame that the GBR era seems to be continuing in the same vein as the privatised one, rather than going for higher levels of accountability and transparency.

My thoughts entirely. As much as the cuts are going to inconvenience me because they're at precisely the times that I travel what really disappoints me is the complete lack of transparency and what looks like an attempt to keep the matter so low key in the hope that no one who matters notices. This is not the way to demonstrate that publicly-owned SWR is any different from its predecessor.

 

[Bikeman78]

My thoughts entirely. As much as the cuts are going to inconvenience me because they're at precisely the times that I travel what really disappoints me is the complete lack of transparency and what looks like an attempt to keep the matter so low key in the hope that no one who matters notices. This is not the way to demonstrate that publicly-owned SWR is any different from its predecessor.

Worse still, they probably won't even show as cancelled on live updates or station info screens. They will simply cease to exist.

 

[Goldfish62]

Worse still, they probably won't even show as cancelled on live updates or station info screens. They will simply cease to exist.

Yes, that's exactly what'll happen. Because if they were shown as cancelled that would enable passengers to claim Delay Repay. Win win situation for SWR....

Maybe SWR will redeem itself over the next couple of weeks and publish a list of the withdrawn services and explain why. There's always hoping...

 

[Peter Mugridge]

No. There is a significant surplus of 455s on the book.

How many of those actually work, though?

 

[Goldfish62]

How many of those actually work, though?

Here's the thread for you. The info will be in there or one of the very helpful contributors will be able to quickly advise:

SWR outgoing Metro fleet withdrawals (complete)

Thread to keep track of the withdrawals of South Western Railway suburban stock, as part of the replacement by Class 701 trains. As of 24 December 2025, Class 456 and Class 707 have been entirely scrapped and transferred to SouthEastern respectively. Class 455 has no more booked workings...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[bb21]

How many of those actually work, though?

Enough for the current timetable, provided you don't get a string of failures in quick succession.

 

[Goldfish62]

In the SWR Metro fleet withdrawal thread, it seems a lot of 455s are being sent to the scrapyard, with a lot of 4-car single units running around.

SWR outgoing Metro fleet withdrawals (complete)

Thread to keep track of the withdrawals of South Western Railway suburban stock, as part of the replacement by Class 701 trains. As of 24 December 2025, Class 456 and Class 707 have been entirely scrapped and transferred to SouthEastern respectively. Class 455 has no more booked workings...

www.railforums.co.uk

Is this the real reason for the reduced timetable? And that they hope they can get sufficient 701s in service before they switch back to the regular timetable?

As previously stated it's to allow 701 training to continue at a good rate during the peak holiday period.

 

[Class15]

As previously stated it's to allow 701 training to continue at a good rate during the peak holiday period.

I think regular passengers would much rather have the normal passenger service than have the new trains come into service slightly quicker?

 

[Goldfish62]

I think regular passengers would much rather have the normal passenger service than have the new trains come into service slightly quicker?

You'd best direct that towards SWR.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I think regular passengers would much rather have the normal passenger service than have the new trains come into service slightly quicker?

And what happens when the rest of the 455s go pop?