South Western Railway
British train operating company
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| December 2024 | The Starmer government announced the re-nationalisation of the South Western rail area, with the DfT Operator scheduled to take over from SWR on 25 May 2025. |
| June 24 2024 | The first Class 458/4 train entered public service, initially operating on limited outer suburban routes between London Waterloo and Weybridge via Addlestone. |
| January 2024 | Trains from the new order began to be used for passengers, with 42 of the 90 ordered trains accepted from Alstom. |
| February 2023 | The contract was further extended until May 2025. |
| January 17 2022 | Class 456 trains were withdrawn from service. |
| 2021 | Feltham depot was completed, intended to provide stabling for the Class 701 units. |
| November 1 2021 | New fleet for the Island Line entered service. |
| October 2021 | The management contract was updated with a finish date of 28 May 2023, with an option to extend. |
| March 2021 | South Western Railway announced they would keep 28 Class 458 units and planned to refurbish and reconfigure them to four carriages for deployment on the Portsmouth Direct Line. |
| January 3 2021 | Class 483 trains were withdrawn from service after 82 years, concluding their service with London Transport and South Western Railway. |
| December 2020 | Terms for the abolition of the franchise system for SWR were agreed, with a management contract to run until 1 April 2023. |
| June 15 2020 | Face coverings became mandatory for passengers and staff on SWR services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| March 2020 | Class 442 fleet was permanently withdrawn from service. |
| December 2 2019 | The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) began a series of 27 days of strikes protesting potential driver-only operation of new train units. |
| August 20 2017 | First/MTR took over South Western franchise operations, with services branded as South Western Railway (SWR). |
| March 2017 | The Department for Transport awarded the South Western franchise to First/MTR, with a planned franchise period from 20 August 2017 to 18 August 2024. |
| July 2016 | The Department for Transport issued the Invitation to Tender for the South Western franchise. |
| June 2016 | MTR Corporation partnered with FirstGroup, taking a 30% shareholding in the joint venture for the franchise bid. |
| February 2016 | The Department for Transport shortlisted FirstGroup and Stagecoach to bid for the next South Western franchise. |
| July 2015 | The Department for Transport abandoned efforts to negotiate an extension with South West Trains and announced the South Western franchise would be re-tendered. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article South Western Railway, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.