South Western Railway has released details of its new timetable that will come into operation from Monday, 22nd May. The timetable includes a number of changes that are designed to provide better onward connections for customers at various stations, including Salisbury.

The timetable reflects current demand from passengers, with numbers at 78% of pre-pandemic levels, and peak travel recovering to 61% of pre-Covid demand.

The changes at Salisbury involve the route to Yeovil via Westbury. They are designed to improve the spread of services between Westbury and Yeovil Pen Mill and to better integrate with Great Western Railway’s new timetable on its Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth route.

Two changes will be made:

● The 11:37am Basingstoke to Yeovil Junction via Westbury will start one minute later at 11:38am and will terminate at Salisbury instead of Yeovil Junction.
● A new service will leave Salisbury at 12:51pm for Yeovil Junction via Westbury.

Steve Tyler, performance and planning director for South Western Railway, said: “We are confident that our service levels match demand on the network, but have monitored changes in customer flows and made some minor changes to our timetable.

“While the majority of our timetable is the same as the one in place, we have made alterations to improve performance and provide better onward travel, such as in Lymington, where our services will offer better connectivity with ferries to the Isle of Wight.

“Our advice to customers is to check before travelling as those changes mean a small number of services will depart slightly earlier, or later, than the December 2022 timetable.”