At South Western Railway we know that you want a safe, reliable, punctual service. We’re committed to providing this, to help deliver the best service we can.
We continually measure our service reliability and punctuality and report on how we are performing against targets which are set in our Passenger’s Charter.
All our services are monitored every day, including Sundays and Bank Holidays and we have a range of performance activities taking place to improve our network. Here are a few things we are doing this year:
- Continuing to rollout the Arterio trains to replace the suburban fleet.
- £129m investment in the re-signalling from Farncombe to Petersfield, including the renewal of nine level crossings.
- Queenstown Road Track Renewal to remove multiple reoccurring faults in the area.
Want to know more about what we're doing to improve performance?
Download our Joint Performance Strategy with Network Rail, delivering a high performing railway, together.
Headline Performance data — Period 12 (1 February - 28 February)
The rail year runs from 1st April to 31st March and is split up into 13 four-week ‘periods'.
Percentage of total services cancelled
After three periods of more positive performance, P12 was much more challenging with all key metrics failing to achieve target and performing worse than P12 last year. This was driven by the following factors:
- Trespass and Fatalities – we saw three significant incidents on the critical corridor on 11th (Raynes Park), 12th (Clapham Junction), and 26th February (Raynes Park). We are continuing our engagement with the British Transport Police, the Samaritans, local authorities, and other organisations to mitigate trespass and fatalities. We have also commenced work on high-risk boundaries and platform ends, following a survey of 203 stations, to help prevent unauthorised access to the railway. We are also deploying additional colleagues at key locations, both on trains and at stations, to further prevent unauthorised access to the railway
- Track Faults - Track has performed better than target across the majority of this financial year, but a track fault at Clapham Junction on 23rd February and an Emergency Speed Restriction at Raynes Park on 18th February contributed significantly to targets being missed in P12. We are investing in improved technologies to provide remote visibility of track conditions (such as on train detection technology), which will help track maintenance teams prioritise tasks and upskilling colleagues to help reduce the time it takes to rectify faults
- Cable Faults - Cable Failures in the Havant area, as well as between Dorchester South and Moreton significantly impacted performance in the period. Cable Faults have generally performed well across most of this year, however in the last two periods this has started to deteriorate. We are now using drones to detect cable failures in the London Waterloo area, and conducting trials for targeted on-site inspections, to prevent signalling and track failures respectively. The Havant signalling system is being fully renewed in 2028.
For a more detailed breakdown of performance please click here.
