South West Trains

South West Trains (SWT) was a British Train Operating Company that held the South Western franchise from 4 February 1996, the first franchise let in the privatisation of British Rail, until 19 August 2017. It was operated throughout by Stagecoach Group, which won three successive renewals of the franchise.

SWT operated services from London Waterloo to the south-western suburbs (Wimbledon, Kingston, Twickenham), and on to Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Weymouth, Salisbury, Exeter and Reading. The franchise inherited the third-rail electrified suburban network from BR's Southern Region and the Class 442 'Wessex Electric' fleet from Network SouthEast.

SWT's principal new rolling stock was the Class 444 Desiro and Class 450 Desiro EMUs (Siemens, 2003–2007), introduced for the Bournemouth and suburban services respectively. The franchise passed to South Western Railway (a FirstGroup/MTR consortium) on 20 August 2017.