Wessex Strategic Planning

Climate Change

Following discussions with colleagues we have decided to choose Holes Bay, Poole as a case study to look at in more detail. This will form part of a piece of work that will act as a precursor to the ‘Adaptation Pathways’ we are looking to develop as a company, as detailed in NR’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy.

For more information on how the railway is adapting to climate change, details can be found in the 3rd Ad aptation Report and for further information on the strategy for Wessex, please click here: Wessex.

Main Line Phase 2

Over the last quarter, we have been busy finalising the first draft of Main Line Phase 2 document. This draws together the work looking at our long term strategy for the Main Line south of Woking and our previously published, here, strategy for Woking to London Waterloo into a coherent strategy for our main line services.

The draft is currently with the study’s steering group and stakeholders for comment. Once finalised, this will be published and available on the website.

Strategic Station Plans – Wareham / Yeovil Junction

Following positive engagement on the Wareham and Yeovil Junction Strategic Station Plans, we have started work developing the next round of plans. These will include some exciting new methods of working through collaboration with Western route at Windsor as well as academic researchers at Guildford to further deliver on our plans.

Following the completion of Wareham and Yeovil SSPs, we will begin the process of setting up steering groups and remitting the plans for these new locations.

We plan to offer drafts of the Wareham and Yeovil SSPs to their steering groups for comment very soon, with publication not long after this. We will share links to these studies once they have been completed.

Dorset Connectivity Summary Document

This quarter we published a summary document detailing the findings of our Dorset Connectivity Strategic Study. This document sets out long term strategic goals for improved connectivity on the South West Main Line between Brockenhurst and Weymouth, and the Heart of Wessex Line between Weymouth and Westbury. You can find the summary document here.

Post Strategy Development

We continue to work in partnership with our industry colleagues, stakeholders, and funders to take forward the recommendations of our strategic studies to a Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC) level of development.

We are currently engaged on the following:

Heart of Wessex Line: with funding from Western Gateway STB to look at the business case for a 1tph between Weymouth and Bristol, and potential links with the West of England Line (recommendations from Dorset Connectivity Strategic Study, here)
Devon Metro: we continue to work with Devon County Council to look at potential options for an hourly Barnstaple to Axminster service (recommendations from West of England Line CMSP, here)
Yeovil Junction to Salisbury service enhancement: working with Western Gateway STB to understand the case for providing a 2tph service between Yeovil Junction and Salisbury (recommendations from West of England Line CMSP, here)
Solent Connectivity: working in partnership with Solent area local authorities and transport bodies to look at improvements to local Solent services (recommendations from Solent Connectivity CMSP, here)

If you want to know more about these SOBC workstreams or want to give us your thoughts, then please get in touch. As always if you have any questions or require any assistance, please feel free to email the Southern Region Stakeholder Team at SouthernRegionStakeholders@networkrail.co.uk