Licensed hackney drivers at Bournemouth station are being told they can apply for a permit from 1 December and pay South Western Railway direct.
Ahmed Mohammed, a representative of the Bournemouth Taxi Rank Association and treasurer of the BCP Taxi and Private Hire Association, said he had spent nearly eight months asking for a fairer arrangement. He said eligible local drivers would then be able to apply on the same basis.
The public row is older than those eight months.
What is actually published
The 1 December date comes from the association, in a report the Bournemouth Echo published on 10 October. South Western Railway has not issued its own notice of that start date, and it has not published a fee or a list of who counts as eligible.
The railway’s permit portal already has a taxi-driver sign-in. Its terms say a driver may use a rank at an SWR station only after applying, being approved and paying for a permit for that station. The full taxi-permit terms are not on the page. The text says the link will follow.
Bournemouth station lists two taxi ranks. One is taxi-marked parking via Station Approach. The other is via Holdenhurst Road, at the station entrance.
The United Taxis proposal
On 13 September 2025 the Echo reported that about 100 hackney drivers in the rank association had petitioned SWR. Mohammed said a proposal had been made to lease the station rank to United Taxis, and that more than 70 independent drivers had relied on it for nearly six decades. Many, he said, had worked there for more than 15 years. The railway did not comment before that story was published.
No later SWR statement has set out what happened to that proposal. The association now says a direct application route is coming back. Mohammed said some drivers have worked the station area for up to 50 years.
Public ownership
Mohammed thanked the government for taking SWR into public ownership, and thanked station staff for a more open approach. SWR services transferred on 25 May 2025 and are run by DfT Operator Ltd. That was before the September petition. The Department for Transport’s notice of the transfer does not mention taxi ranks.