West of England Main Line
West of England Main Line |
Principal stations
London Waterloo |
The West of England Main Line is the British railway line from London Waterloo to Exeter.
The main towns served by the route are listed below. The line between London and Basingstoke is shared with the South Western Main Line.
- London Waterloo
- Clapham Junction
- Woking
- Basingstoke
- Route converges from Reading, diverges to Winchester and Southampton (see South Western Main Line)
- Andover
- Salisbury
- Route converges from Southampton, diverges to Westbury (see Wessex Main Line)
- Tisbury
- Gillingham
- Templecombe
- Yeovil Junction
- Crewkerne
- Axminster
- Honiton
- Exeter Central
- Route converges from Exmouth (See Avocet Line)
- Exeter St. David's
- Line continues to Newton Abbot, Paignton and Plymouth (see Great Western Main Line)
Passenger services are currently operated by South West Trains using Class 159 and Class 170/3 trains. Currently trains run half hourly from London to Salisbury, hourly to Yeovil Junction and two hourly to Exeter. There are proposals to double the frequency to Exeter [1]; however, the long single track section between Yeovil and Exeter limits capacity and any increase would require the construction of new passing loops (possibly at Whimple and Axminster, according to local media reports).
The line is not electrified (except for the SWML portion).
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: West of England Main Line |
- London and South Western Railway for history of the route, which formerly continued to Plymouth and Cornwall.
Richard Adams' Watership DownEdit |
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Novels: Watership Down - Tales from Watership Down |
Adaptations: Feature film - TV series |
Characters: Bigwig - Blackavar - Blackberry - Campion - Cowslip - Dandelion - Fiver - General Woundwort - Hazel - Hyzenthlay - Kehaar - Vervain - Minor characters |
Mythical/story creatures: El-ahrairah |
Locations: Efrafa - River Enborne - Railway line - Redstone - River Test - Watership Down |
Other: Chief Rabbit - Concepts in Watership Down - Lapine - Owsla |