New open access operation planned between London Waterloo and Fawley branch

The man behind Grand Union Trains is planning a new open access service on the South Western Main Line from May 2026.

Ian Yeowart’s Alliance Rail (Southern) is starting industry consultation to run an hourly service between Marchwood (on the Fawley branch) and Southampton Central, with every other train continuing to London Waterloo.

All trains would call at Totton, while intermediate stops to Waterloo would be Southampton Airport Parkway, Eastleigh, Winchester, Basingstoke and Hook. Additional stops at Woking and Wimbledon are also being considered.

If approved, it would lead to the return of passenger services along the Fawley branch (known as the Waterside line) for the first time since 1966.

Plans to reopen the line, which was part of the previous government’s Restoring Your Railway programme, received widespread support from locals before being shelved by the new government soon after taking office in July.

Alliance Rail (Southern) intends to use Class 769 DC/diesel bi-mode units with 2+2 Standard Class seating and 2+1 in First Class.

A single four-car set would be used between Southampton and Marchwood, while pairs working as eight-car trains would travel to Waterloo.

In total, a fleet of eight sets would be needed, leased from Porterbrook (which is already undertaking gauging work along the route).

Alliance Rail (South) submitted its form to Network Rail for internal consultation in mid- December. A seven-year access period is being requested.

Managing Director Ian Yeowart said: “We are hopeful of having it [the application] with the regulator by the end of February.”

If approved, Alliance Rail (Southern) has a three-phase plan, beginning with reopening the disused Marchwood station. After that, it would look to relocate the station to a site where a car park can be added, before bringing the rest of the line up to scratch and extending to Hythe and Fawley.

The plans are close to those put forward by the similarly named (but separate) Alliance Rail Holdings, which applied to run between Waterloo and Southampton Central under the name Grand Southern Railway.

The operator wanted to use Class 442 electric multiple units. But when these were no longer available, the Office of Rail and Road rejected the application in 2018 because there was no back-up plan.

The service was also forecast to not generate sufficient revenue to compensate for money extracted from the then-franchisee. The regular also raised concerns about what impact services might have on South Western Main Line (SWML) performance. 

Yeowart said the SWML carried more trains in 2017, and that the new Alliance Rail (Southern) was working with Network Rail on developing a new timetable. He added that open access impact on both revenue generation and abstraction had "matured" in the intervening years.

Elsewhere, Yeowart is also still intending to launch Grand Union's Cardiff-Edinburgh service, which will compete with the recently launched CrossCountry service.

Grand Union would service Doncaster, while CrossCountry’s trains go through Leeds. Yeowart predicts an end-to-end journey time of six-and-a-half hours, at least half an hour faster than the new service.

Intending to run five trains a day on the route, he described the once-a-day CrossCountry offering as a “token service that doesn’t do the business”.

Aiming to start in May 2026, either Class 221s or ‘222s’ will be used at first. However, Grand Union hopes to piggyback on any order for new units made by fellow open access operator Grand Central, which suggested in November it could order a new fleet should its existing track rights into London King’s Cross be extended to 2038 (RAIL 1024).

Yeowart said Grand Union is due to meet ORR in the new year, and hopes to have a decision within the first five months of 2025.