Paying the price for SWR nationalisation

Spare a thought for those of us who will this weekend (25 May 2025) lose a major rail travel benefit as a result of South Western Railway (SWR) becoming the first rail operator to be nationalised by the Labour Government.

Over the past five years a major benefit for me of working part-time for a FirstGroup company has been an annual allocation of cheap day rover tickets that are valid on any of the First rail operations and, importantly for me, SWR.

On the final day of private-sector SWR 444018 departs Haslemere with 2P07 from London Waterloo (05.45) to Portsmouth Harbour and passes the signal box that is scheduled to close in October 2025

But the change of ownership at SWR means losing that valuable perk that comes with role as a Rail Replacement Coordinator, although it will continue to be available on First’s two other franchises, GWR and Avanti, until they too are taken into the public sector.

Passengers and luggage about to join 159014 as it arrives in Woking with 1L13 from London Waterloo (07.10) to Exeter St. David’s

Not so lucky are the many thousands of SWR staff, who will lose their entitlement to all of these Rover tickets as they have now become part of the public sector, and are no longer be employees of FirstGroup.


So to mark the final day of private sector control I took a last chance for a cheap day out on SWR (Saturday, 24 May 2025) by taking a trip down the operator’s longest, and only diesel operated route, with a three-hour trip from Woking to Exeter, before a short GWR hop to Dawlish to capture some steam action.

159009 (attached at Salisbury) and 159014 at Exeter St. David’s with 1L13 from London Waterloo

The ageing Class 159 units are certainly the most comfortable SWR rolling stock to travel in, but they are noisy, lack phone charging points and the absence of any catering on a three-hour journey – withdrawn due to Covid and never reinstated – is one unforgivable legacy of the private sector SWR.

159009/014 wait in Exeter New Yard before forming the 11.25 service (1L44) to London Waterloo

There have been issues with reliability, as well as landslips, along the Salisbury-Exeter route and the long stretches of single track mean the standard pattern of hourly services must pass in the loop east of Tisbury station, then on the double track sections at around Sherborne, Axminster and Pinhoe, if punctuality is to be maintained.

West Country 4-6-2 34046 “Braunton” storms along the sea wall at Dawlish with 1Z82 from Shrewsbury (06.43) to Kingswear

On the final day of private sector control it was good to see all the SWR services I used were right on time, with the 07.00 from Haslemere to Woking and then the 07.36 from Woking getting me to Exeter St David’s on schedule at 10.42, giving plenty of time to take a 11.00 GWR departure to Dawlish Warren.

159020/017 stand in platform 1 at Exeter St. David’s with 1L52 (13.25) to London Waterloo

From here I walked along the famous sea wall to the first of two footbridges over the railway and joined a group of locals in waiting for and then photographing West Country 34046 Braunton as it steamed towards Dawlish with a special working (1Z82) from Shrewsbury to Kingswear.

After five years, I will bitterly miss the SWR Rovers that allowed me to begin longer distance trips with a cheap early morning journey to Waterloo, and it seems all the more regrettable when I realise that I will be back working for SWR next weekend (31 May 2025) on bus replacement duty!