It also provided regional services in Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight through its Island Line subsidiary.

Unlike the majority of franchises, SWT operated without subsidies, being a profitable concern due to the high number of commuters that regularly used its services.

[6] In April 2001, the Strategic Rail Authority awarded Stagecoach a new franchise for the region, its bid having been judged to be superior to those from its rivals, FirstGroup / NedRailways and Sea Containers.

During the early 2000s, improvements included the introduction of new rail services and the reopening of Chandler's Ford station in Hampshire.

At the time, most other commuter services had already banned smoking, and the measure was claimed by the Evening Standard to be popular with the majority of the travelling public.

[13] On 12 December 2004, the company completely recast its timetable, the first occasion that such an exercise had been performed in the South West region since 1967.

This was reportedly motivated by ambitions to bring service provision into line with changing demand and to take into account the different characteristics of modern rolling stock.

[2] During December 2005, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that Arriva, FirstGroup, MTR/Sea Containers, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to tender for the new South Western franchise, which combined the South West Trains and Island Line Trains franchises; National Express later withdrew.

One of the franchise's major ongoing concerns was the overcrowding that occurred on some services, particularly around rush hour, thus SWT's management paid considerable attention to increasing capacity when feasible.

[2] Major measures performed by SWT to expand the network's capacity included improvement works at London Waterloo station and the procurement of new rolling stock.

[2][19] Christian Roth, SWT's engineering director, claimed in 2015 that the firm was in the process of delivering similar capacity improvements to the Thameslink programme at a tenth of the cost and a quarter of the time.

[2] Further measures were also proposed by SWT; Tim Shoveller, the company's managing director, periodically spoke out on his desire to eventually introduce double-decker trains to serve its busiest commuter routes.

[2] While typically viewed as an effective means of increasing capacity, such ambitions were complicated by multiple factors, the principal of which that there were no double-deck trains in operation that were believed to be suitable for SWT's needs, thus likely necessitating the development of an original design.

[2] At the time, the partnership was hailed as an advancement for rail operations, However, the arrangement was dissolved in 2015 without any official explanation, although anonymous insiders claimed the cause to be Network Rail's reluctance to devolve power over its centralised infrastructure to individual routes, while Stagecoach desired local decisions to be made in partnership.

[2] In March 2013, the Secretary of State for Transport announced the DfT was in talks with Stagecoach to extend the franchise until April 2019.

[25][26] South West Trains was the key operator for western Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, and also served Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon.

[2] From Waterloo, SWT's London terminus, long-distance trains ran to southern England, including the major coastal population centres of Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth.

The majority of its passengers were on suburban commuter lines in inner and south-west London, Surrey, east Berkshire, and north-east Hampshire.

After privatisation in 1996, the network changed considerably, no longer serving West Croydon, Sutton, 'Coastway' stations between Chichester and Brighton, or the Reading to Basingstoke line.

However, these restrictions applied only to cyclists boarding or alighting in the area bounded by Hook, Alton, Guildford, Reading and Dorking.

Main destinations included: London Waterloo, Clapham Junction, Barnes, Richmond, Twickenham, Hounslow, Ascot, Staines, Reading, Windsor & Eton Riverside, Kingston, Raynes Park, Motspur Park, New Malden, Chessington South, Surbiton, Leatherhead, Weybridge, Dorking, Effingham Junction, Woking, Guildford, Aldershot, Alton, Farnborough Main, Fleet, Basingstoke, Haslemere, Andover, Winchester, Eastleigh, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Fareham, Portsmouth & Southsea, Brockenhurst, Portsmouth Harbour, Bournemouth, Westbury, Bristol Temple Meads, Weymouth, Yeovil Junction and Exeter St Davids.

In November 2010, the DfT announced that passengers would be able to top up Oyster cards at all stations operated by South West Trains in the London Travelcard area from May 2011.

However, the company had planned to install at least one self-service ticket machine at each of its served stations in the bid to stop fare evasion.

[33] Stagecoach, SWT's parent company, sold seats on some off-peak services under the Megatrain brand from Mondays to Saturdays.

[37] These early 1990s-built units are compatible with the existing Class 455 fleet and are coupled with these to form ten-car trains, increasing capacity on some local services in and out of Waterloo.

[39] Only a handful of units were required each day to help maintain services from Waterloo to Reading, and these had been expected to cease after 31 July 2006, when the lease with the rolling stock company expired.

They have been fitted with new, larger destination screens that comply with the disability legislation, but the trains still fall foul in some other areas, such as the height of the door-open buttons.

[42][43] The first two of the five-car sets were delivered in October 2013, and underwent testing ahead of the introduction of the first ten-car train into service in December 2013.

They were sometimes pressed into use on Waterloo-Exeter services but, as they were not fitted with end gangways for catering or selective door opening for the short platforms at some stations, this was not a regular route.

Farnham depot, in Weydon Lane, was opened by the Southern Railway at the time of the electrification of the Portsmouth and Alton lines in 1937.