West of England Main Line

The West of England Main Line is a British railway line from Basingstoke, Hampshire to Exeter St Davids in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter. Despite its historic title, it is not today's principal route from London to the West of England: Exeter and everywhere further west is reached more quickly by First Great Western services from London Paddington. At, the line intersects with the Wessex Main Line.

History
When all sections had been incorporated into the London and South Western Railway, they consisted of the following:


 * Basingstoke to Salisbury
 * Basingstoke to Andover, opened 3 July 1854
 * Andover to Salisbury, opened 1 May 1857


 * Branches:
 * Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened June 1901, closed 30 May 1936
 * From Hurstbourne and Andover to Romsey and on to Eastleigh and Southampton: both closed. Link via Longparish opened 1 June 1885; closed 6 July 1931.
 * At Andover, junction with the Midland and South Western Junction Railway to Cheltenham
 * Bulford Camp branch
 * Salisbury to Romsey, with a branch to Bournemouth
 * At Salisbury, the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from Westbury and Bristol had its own terminus: the L&SWR continued the route southeast towards Southampton. This route today is the Wessex Main Line.


 * Between Salisbury and Exeter:
 * Salisbury &mdash; Yeovil opened 2 May 1859
 * Yeovil &mdash; Exeter opened 19 July 1860


 * Branches:
 * To Yeovil Town joint station with the GWR
 * To Chard joint station with the GWR
 * To Lyme Regis from Axminster
 * To Seaton from Seaton Junction (closed)
 * To Sidmouth from Sidmouth Junction (also alternative route to Exmouth)
 * To to Exmouth from Exmouth Junction near Exeter

The line was downgraded by being singled for long sections west of Salisbury by British Rail. This restricts the number of trains on this section, but passing loops have been added to alleviate this problem.

Route
Trains between London Waterloo and Exeter run on the South Western Main Line as far as Basingstoke. The West of England Line diverges from this at Worting Junction, a short distance west of Basingstoke. Some sections of the line between Salisbury and Pinhoe are single-track.

The stations on the line (in 2013) are:
 * Overton
 * Whitchurch (Hampshire)
 * Andover
 * Grateley
 * Salisbury
 * Tisbury
 * Gillingham (Dorset)
 * Templecombe
 * Sherborne
 * Yeovil Junction
 * Crewkerne
 * Axminster
 * Honiton
 * Feniton
 * Whimple
 * Pinhoe
 * Exeter Central
 * Exeter St Davids

Current operations
Passenger services are currently operated by South West Trains using Class 159 and Class 158 trains. They generally run half-hourly from London to Salisbury, and hourly to Exeter. The Network Rail South West Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy (March 2006) recommended building an extended section of double track from Chard Junction to Axminster, plus a passing loop at Whimple. However, Network Rail's Route Plan, is silent on the Whimple loop. The Axminster Loop is centred on Axminster station, and does not extend to Chard Junction as originally proposed.

An hourly service runs between Exeter and London Waterloo (almost clockface except for a few early morning services) from 12 December 2010. Stations between Exeter Central and Honiton (Pinhoe, Whimple and Feniton) retain a two-hourly service, with services calling at Pinhoe, or Whimple and Feniton, with few services calling at all three stations. South West Trains no longer runs beyond Exeter from December 2009.

The line is not electrified (except for the SWML portion).

Typical off-peak services in trains per hour are:


 * 1 London to Salisbury - calling at all stations west of Basingstoke
 * 1 London to Exeter St. Davids - calling at Andover and all stations west of Salisbury
 * Some trains divide, with a portion going to Bristol Temple Meads
 * Some trains terminate at Yeovil Junction

Between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, trains call at Clapham Junction and Woking.