South Western Railway / Network Rail Wessex
Update – Temporary Timetable Changes on the West of England Line – FULL TEXT HERE
We are writing to provide an update on the temporary revised timetable on the West of England between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids.
Latest information
Since introducing the temporary timetable between Salisbury and Exeter St Davids on Monday 10 August we have seen the driest conditions ever recorded on the Southern Region of Britain’s railway network. As we outlined in our previous email, this weather has resulted in clay embankments supporting the railway between Salisbury and Exeter drying out, affecting the stability of the track.
To keep customers safe, trains have been running at reduced speeds between Tisbury in Wiltshire to Honiton in Devon, a 60-mile stretch of largely single-track railway which is particularly vulnerable to drought-like conditions.
We use a system provided by the UK Meteorological Office to provide a monthly estimate of Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD), which maps Britain into a grid of 40 x 40 km squares and tracks soil moisture levels in each.
Every square in the south of England has recorded record highs for SMD, and while temperatures are cooler and we have seen a small amount of rain, we are still in drought conditions and need a significant amount of rain to restore moisture levels to normal.
Moisture levels are significantly lower than last year when we operated a temporary timetable between August and November.
Bus services
To help students with their journeys to local schools and colleges we will provide bus services between Axminster, Feniton and Exeter starting on Tuesday 1 September, as follows: see full test
