South West Trains

South West Trains is a British railway company and a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group. Your network extends across the southwest of England, Greater London in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire.

History

South West Trains won the 1996 tender for the railway network in South West England and took over the routes from the dissolved state company British Rail. The concession was extended by four years in February 2003, the Company had hoped for a concession period of 20 years. However, this prevented South West Trains not intend to replace the old and worn out rolling stock with new features of the model Desiro Siemens Mobility. The new tender was then, however, was won again, and the concession, which also includes Iceland Line now on the Isle of Wight, extended until 2017 on 22 September 2006. Since May 2004, valid on all trains of the South West Trains smoking ban.

Rolling stock

South West Trains currently operates 293 complete sets of electric multiple units of the British classes 450, 455 and 458 as well as 41 diesel multiple - sets of the British classes 158 and 159

Route network

The main railway station and operation center is Waterloo in London. From here there are trains, inter alia, Basingstoke, Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Guildford, Weymouth, Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter and Torquay. However, the largest passenger volumes have the commuter lines in south-west London. All trains of the South West Trains operate via Clapham Junction, the station with the most pulling movements in Europe.

Most of the routes of the South West Trains is electrified. Power is supplied by the usual in southern England busbars with 750 V DC. Because of the high number of moves ( up to 1600 daily) and a lack of investment over many years are often delays. Recently, however, efforts are being made ​​to remedy these weaknesses, such as through the construction of a central signal box at the Waterloo.