South Western Railway have recently published new timetables that contain alarming proposals for that would slash valuable train services in our local area.

These include, but are not limited to:

  • Services to Waterloo from St Margarets, North Sheen and Mortlake are being cut from four to two trains per hour, losing the service every 15 minutes and instead becoming half-hourly.
  • Teddington, Hampton Wick and Strawberry Hill will all lose two trains per hour during the morning peak.
  • Whitton will lose service on the Hounslow loop off-peak, though it will continue to run to Twickenham. This means that passengers will have to change at Twickenham for trains to Waterloo.
  • Whitton will also lose one of its extra peak trains from Aldershot.

As Liberal Democrats, we know how important these train services are to local people and we are appalled by the Department for Transport’s insistence on reducing services as a cost-cutting measure. These cuts will lead to overcrowding on SWR services which incentivises people to drive instead, and therefore would be damaging for the local air quality. Proper public transportation service is needed to prevent this.

SWR committed themselves to return to 100% of pre-COVID services, but at the moment they are averaging only 85%. Therefore, reducing services would be unproductive for everyone.

We’re leading the fightback against these dreadful plans. Our local Liberal Democrat Council and local MPs will be responding to the consultation to voice our unequivocal opposition to these proposals.

But we need your help.

We want to make sure that the government and South Western Railway hears the widespread opposition to these plans and that’s why we need you to respond to the consultation.

– Twickenham & Richmond Liberal Democrats