Network Rail has announced that teams of engineers worked throughout December in South West London, Hampshire, Surrey and Wiltshire to help passengers have a more reliable railway for passengers and freight users.

At one of the Wessex route’s busiest stations, Guildford, engineers worked a total of 150 hours between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to repair, refurbish and strengthen Farnham Road Overbridge.

The £4.8 million project saw engineers repair brick and steelwork, before installing steel plates to increase the bridge’s capacity from 7.5 tonnes to 40 tonnes, supporting rising levels of road traffic above.

Down at track level, engineers carried out inspections, maintenance and drainage work close to the station.

Essential bridge works also took place just outside Salisbury station between Christmas Eve and Saturday 28 December.

In Southampton, between Southampton Airport Parkway and Southampton Central stations, maintenance took place on switches and crossings to improve reliability in the area.

Finally, over in Wimbledon, engineers were on-site at 3 am on Christmas Day to test and commission two new signalling transformers.

What did the officials say?

Mark Killick, Network Rail Wessex route director, said:

“I’d like to thank passengers and those living close to the railway for their patience over the Christmas period while we carried out these important projects. Infrastructure maintenance and improvement works like these are vital to both keep our passengers and freight users moving and to improve our route’s performance.”

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