South Western Railway reinstates full service in Weymouth after pandemic

South Western Railway said staff shortages due to the Omicron Covid variant had led to cuts in services

A train service between Weymouth and London has been reinstated for the first time since the pandemic began.

For two years the South Western Railway timetable was cut in half, with one train an hour instead of two.

Normal services have now resumed and improvements are also being made to Weymouth Train Station, including better bus connections.

BBC transport correspondent Paul Clifton said there had been "loud calls" to bring back the service.

South Western Railway (SWR) had to revise its timetable multiple times due to the pandemic, which caused staff shortages.

Analysis

By Paul Clifton, BBC South transport correspondent

Since the start of the pandemic, passengers from Weymouth and Dorchester have had a second-class railway service.

As passenger numbers tumbled, the number of direct trains to London was halved.

A reasonable decision: the trains were almost empty. Sometimes, whole carriages were carrying nothing more than fresh air.

But last year, leisure travel bounced back much faster than business use.

And Weymouth is a popular holiday route for people heading to the sandy beach. There have been plenty of days when the trains have been packed.

For a year now, there have been loud calls for South Western Railway to reinstate two trains an hour each way.

Including from every one of the region's MPs. Now, finally, it is happening.

The reduced services and engineering works also impacted visitor numbers to the Dorset coast in the summer after SWR announced its "seaside special" service between Gillingham, Sherborne and Weymouth would not run.

A spokesperson for SWR said bringing back two direct trains per hour between Weymouth and Waterloo, "combined with a whole host of improvements at Weymouth station, represents a real boost to frequency, journey times and connectivity".