Talk:West of England line

Possible rename
I am proposing renaming this article to South Western Main Line, and creating a new West of England Main Line article describing the line from Paddington to Penzance. See discussion on Talk:Rail transport in Great Britain -- Chris j wood 11:41, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Watership Down
I'm going to nuke the Watership Down section as being completely not relevant to this article, even if it is meant to be the same railway line. --88.110.189.21 21:04, 28 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, it has no place in this article. I thought of reducing it to a one-line mention, but even then it would need to be in one of those dreadful "Trivia" sections which so frequently make WP an embarrassment. I'm cutting the whole thing. Vilĉjo 20:33, 13 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Fair enough. As the person who added it, on reflection I think you're right. If the specific location were important (as with Kings Cross station in the Harry Potter series) then it should be in, but as far as WD is concerned it could be any line. If this were a much longer article then it might have a section discussing the line's appearance in literature, TV, films etc and the WD mention would fit in well there, but you're right: it looks silly in the article as it stands. As it happens I also agree that Trivia sections are A Bad Idea. Loganberry (Talk) 00:41, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Merge discussion
I believe that the section on the history of the line from Exeter to Plymouth should be removed from this article and included in Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury. The route diagram would also then be shortened.

The reasoning is that: Geof Sheppard (talk) 14:02, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) The route and services sections do not include information west of Exeter.
 * 2) The current services on this route all terminate at Exeter.
 * 3) For the over forty years up until the timetable change in December 2009, the few trains from the West of England Main Line that continued to Plymouth ran along routes other than the one described.
 * As this article deals with the entire route between London and Plymouth, I'm not sure it would be entirely helpful to remove one part of its history to another article dealing with the hotchpotch of branches which spawned from this main line. The 40 year hiatus will, I believe, come to an end once the section between Bere Alston/Okehampton is reinstated. By the by - and you are more knowledgeable about this than me - isn't the Southern Railway article in fact masquerading as what is generally referred to as the L&SWR's so-called Withered Arm? Lamberhurst (talk) 17:30, 9 February 2010 (UTC)


 * The article is unclear about whether it is London to Exeter or Basingstoke to Plymouth (why Plymouth, what about Padstow?), hence my proposal to split it, tidy things up, and make it more consistent.


 * I must admit that if I had started the Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury article I would have kept it to the lines west of Exeter (the "withered arm") and and titled it as London and South Western Railway... But I'm not proposing that change (untangling the West of England Line would be enough to keep me busy for now). Geof Sheppard (talk) 13:39, 10 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't enough of the history to comment on the merits of this proposal and only came across it on WikiProject Somerset/Cleanup listing, but should another merge tag be placed on Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury to enure everyone who may be interested is aware?&mdash; Rod talk 21:39, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

While there hasn't been a huge outcry against the proposal I am mindful of Lamberhurst's comments, although we should be aware of crystal-ball gazing! However, I have not forgotten the issue. I am still of the opinion that thsi should reflect the current (and likely future) use of the line and shold therefore not go into the lines west of Exeter in any great detail. I have now found a little-loved page Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR which is surely the correct place for this merger? Geof Sheppard (talk) 13:06, 1 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR would seem to be a better home, provided perhaps that the awful title is changed to something more useful like Exeter to Plymouth Line. It probably goes without saying but I imagine that the relevant part of the routemap here would be copied across. From Geof's comments above, it seems that this would be a temporary measure pending the reopening of the missing section, if and when that happens. Lamberhurst (talk) 10:38, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

History or current?
I think this article (like a lot of UK "route" articles) falls between two stools, of historical development based on geography (Basingstoke to Exeter SD) and current operations (Waterloo to Exeter SD). The historical side is very inadequate, and the current side seems to be a list of stations and references to Network Rail business plans.

It is important to remember that these articles are for the benefit of people who know very little about the topic, but want to know more; we "insiders" (if that's what we are) tend to forget that.

"West of England Main Line" is a pretty unhelpful title for such people -- if any non-insider person actually entered that into a search field, they might be thinking of Plymouth to Penzance (a main line in the West of England), or else Paddington - Plymouth (main line trains from London to the West of England). *We* know that isn't correct, but then *we* don't come to this article for information.

And another thing; if the scope is "the line from Basingstoke to Exeter", how is Clapham Junction one of the stations served? Afterbrunel (talk) 10:28, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Article name
There seems to be an appetite at the moment to discuss the correct names of various UK railway articles, so I think this is an appropriate time to raise this issue. I propose that this be renamed West of England Line as I don't think it has ever officially been called the 'West of England Main Line'.

South West Trains have a named West of England Line and the Network Southeast subdivision was also known as the 'West of England Line'. I can't find any official documents that use the 'main' word; the current SWT timetables and Network Rail route documentation don't give it a name at all.

It does have some currency as a 'Main' line in enthusiast publications and forums (and sources copied from Wiki), but then some other enthusiast sources use this phrase to mean the GWR route via Taunton. Geof Sheppard (talk) 14:07, 7 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Almost all sources use "West of England line" without capping line, so I'll propose that. Dicklyon (talk) 03:51, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 12 March 2017

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Page moved. --  Dane talk  02:14, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

West of England Main Line → West of England line – News sources are pretty consistent in using "West of England line", without "Main" and with lowercase "line"; books are consistent with lowercase but often do include "main". Dicklyon (talk) 03:51, 12 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Evidence in sources
 * Books show line lowercase always. West of England main line is also common in books (lowercase main line),
 * News shows "West of England line" (and one with capped Line), but no West of England main line. Hence the request to drop Main.


 * Survey
 * Support as nom based on studying the sources as shown above. Dicklyon (talk) 04:00, 12 March 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Incorrect article name.
The DFT classes this line as a main line, according to here:

I think we need to rethink the change of the article name.

SageWater (talk) 12:55, 10 May 2017 (UTC)


 * While it is a main line there is no evidence of it being called the West of England Main line. This has only recently been changed following a discussion. Geof Sheppard (talk) 13:14, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Route map
What are the numbers on the route map? Are they miles or kilometers? It would be good to have this information visible. Absolutelypuremilk (talk) 19:11, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Study undertaken by Network Rail (2020)
There has been a Study undertaken by Network Rail about this line: I thought I'd bring it to the attention of editors who may be keen to keep this article up to date. The article's scope is: "...an assessment of some potential investment choices for the West of England Line from London Waterloo to Exeter St. David's via Basingstoke, Salisbury, Yeovil and Axminster. "
 * Network Rail: Continuous Modular Strategic Planning - West of England Line Study 2020

hrf (talk) 15:04, 11 January 2021 (UTC)