The story of South Western Railway after 29 years as a private operator

South Western Railway runs 1,600 services calling at 213 stations each weekday, and employs more than 5,500 staff.

It serves south west London, Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and to Exeter.

In its earlier guise of South West Trains, owned by Perth-based Stagecoach, it was the country’s most profitable train operator.

The first privatised passenger service of the modern era was the 0510 from Twickenham to London Waterloo on Sunday February 4 1996. It was the first private scheduled service for 48 years.

A sticker labelled the first slam-door service Stagecoach 1. Lower costs were promised. The new operator quickly made so many drivers redundant that there were not enough left to run all its trains.

New Class 450 and 444 Siemens Desiro trains were delivered from 2003. The franchise was re-tendered in 2004, and retained by Stagecoach. From 2007 it incorporated the Isle of Wight’s Island Line, which had initially been franchised separately.

On August 20 2017, South Western Railway replaced South West Trains. Stagecoach had declined to bid against terms it claimed were unacceptable.

Now owned by First Group (70%) and MTR (30%), it ordered 90 new Class 701 trains from Bombardier (now Alstom) in Derby, to replace all suburban rolling stock. Financed by Rock Rail, they were to take over from all Class 455, 456 and almost-new 707 trains.

900 RMT union guards held damaging strikes over plans for drivers to open and close the train doors at stations. It took more than two years to reach agreement.

The new Arterio trains were due in service from 2019. The first one eventually ran to Windsor in January 2024. To date, only seven of the 90 trains are in service each day, with most kept in storage.

Meanwhile freshly-refurbished elderly Class 442 Wessex Electric trains have been scrapped, and freshly-refurbished mid-life Class 458 trains have been withdrawn, with no plans for further use.

Before the pandemic, passenger numbers reached 216 million a year. They have recovered slowly to 165 million. SWR largely carried daily commuters to London offices, who live in affluent areas: the people who have now found themselves most able to work partly from home. Season ticket numbers remain low.

During lockdown, passenger numbers fell to 6% of normal, and the franchise was replaced by a management contract, under which First MTR received a fixed fee for running services.

That contract expired at 0200 on May 25, when the Department for Transport Operator (DFTO) took over South Western Railway.