Train timetable changes impacting residents’ work and education, says MP

A Devon MP spoke in Parliament last week on the impact of extreme weather on the West of England railway line, saying he had heard from constituents who could no longer make work or educational commitments due to timetable changes.

“One person from Awliscombe wrote to me to say that his 17-year-old daughter could no longer get to her apprenticeship for 8 o’clock in the morning, because the only train reaching Exeter at that time had been cancelled,” said Richard Foord, MP for Honiton and Sidmouth, in a Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday, November 3.

Mr Foord said he had also heard from a local dental hygienist whose office “has had to reschedule her 9 o’clock patients until the matter is resolved”, and a woman who has had to leave packed trains in the heat before her stop to “avoid fainting from heat exhaustion”.

The West of England line runs between Exeter St Davids and London Waterloo and provides “vital” connectivity to the rest of the country for areas in the South West.

It is understood the line was constructed in the mid-1800s using soil with a high clay content, making it highly susceptible to cracks in dry conditions.

On Monday, August 10, South Western Railway introduced a temporary timetable after dry weather shrank the clay embankments between Salisbury and Exeter. A speed restriction was introduced between these two stations.

Mr Foord has argued that the introduction of this new timetable, which is understood to see two-hourly trains instead of the usual once-hourly, “is no longer a temporary measure”.

“People can accept that temporary measures may be required because of soil moisture deficit,” he said. “[But] it is the second year in a row that a schedule has been introduced for months at a time.”

South Western Railway introduced speed restrictions between Gillingham in Dorset, and Axminster last summer after hot weather had dried out the embankments between Salisbury and Exeter.

As a result, the rail company scheduled a reduced timetable on the West of England line until the end of November 2025.

South Western Railway said online that it would not be possible to run an hourly service between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids, as around 60 miles of the West of England line is single track, and all of it is unelectrified.

On its West of England line webpage, it says being single track “severely constrains” the way it operates train services, making it harder to respond to disruption.

“There are only six places on the line for trains to pass each other, and they must reach those places at the right time. Even a minor delay by one train can quickly become a major delay to many others,” it says online.

As previously reported by Exeter Today, the rail company has said they are carrying out a “large programme” of tamping and other repair works with an aim of removing the speed restrictions and restoring the normal timetable.

The Minister for Buses and Local Transport, Simon Lightwood, said in Parliament on Tuesday that the Government has already invested £2.9 billion in rail resilience measures across the country.

Mr Foord believes the installation of passing loops between Exeter and Salisbury will help more trains run through to Exeter, explaining in Parliament that “passing loops are like pulling over to allow an oncoming vehicle to come the other way”.

He said he had heard from the Rail Minister, Lord Hendy, that loops “could be developed” at Tisbury and Whimple stations before 2034, if funding allowed.

The MP plans to launch a petition to “demonstrate the strength of feeling in the area [he] represent[s]”.

“I hope to… illustrate to [the] Government that the current service just won’t do”.