South Western Railway customers are being warned that essential engineering work taking place in Hook from Monday the 13th to Thursday the 23rd of February will see last-through trains operate much earlier than usual with no trains operating between Farnborough and Basingstoke after 22:00.
The rail operator is advising passengers to check the last train times and where possible to travel earlier as services making their way through Farnborough and Basingstoke via the main line will finish a great deal earlier than usual and see an extremely limited rail replacement bus service in operation.
Customers are urged to travel using the last through services where possible.
Journey planners for the period covering Monday the 13th to Friday the 17th are now updated and will see the following last trains:
Travelling from London Waterloo:
- London Waterloo to Basingstoke (stopping service): 20:42
- London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour via Basingstoke: 21:08
- London Waterloo to Salisbury: 21:20
- London Waterloo to Weymouth: 21:35
Travelling to London Waterloo:
- Weymouth to London Waterloo: 19:59
- Portsmouth Harbour via Basingstoke to London Waterloo: 19:59
- Salisbury to London Waterloo: 20:23
- Basingstoke to London Waterloo (stopping service): 20:24
- An extremely limited rail replacement bus service will be in operation between Farnborough and Basingstoke.
- A direct bus service will operate from Farnborough to Basingstoke and a stopping bus service, which will call at Fleet, Winchfield and Hook.
From Monday the 13th to Friday the 17th of February:
- Trains will be able to call at Hook from the direction of London from Monday the 13th of February
Customers are also advised to check their full journey due to engineering work which is underway on other areas of the South Western Railway Network and can do so via the Plan my Journey page of the rail operator’s website.
Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th of February will see further changes to service as engineers will be working from 00:45 to 08:25 on Sunday morning and require Saturday night services to finish earlier than usual and will also see services start later on Sunday morning.
Journey planners for Monday the 20th to Thursday the 23rd will be updated towards the end of the next week.
Once the repairs to the landslip are completed through the night of Thursday the 23rd of February, South Western Railway will return to its normal timetable from Friday the 24th of February.
Christian Neill, SWR’s Service Delivery Director, said: “We are strongly advising customers to travel on the last through services if possible from Monday 13 to Thursday 23 February, as trains will not run between Farnborough and Basingstoke after 2200.
“We’re sorry for the disruption this will cause as Network Rail engineers complete the restoration of the South West Main Line following the landslip at Hook in January.
“Only a limited rail replacement bus service will operate after 2200 and a small number of other service alterations will be made, so it’s vital that customers check their journeys before travelling, travel earlier if they can, and allow extra time to complete their journeys too.
“Whilst we appreciate this will be disruptive, we are getting closer to restoring our normal timetable, which we intend to do on Friday 24 February. Our customers have been very patient over the last month and we’re very grateful for that.”
Mark Killick, Network Rail’s Wessex Route Director, said: “We’d like to thank customers and residents living alongside the railway for their patience while we’ve carried out this major repair.
“Fixing the landslip at Hook has been an incredibly tough and complicated job. I’m so sorry our customers will have to endure more disruption before we can reopen all four lines. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution, but this approach is the least disruptive to our customers overall.
“We’ve taken the difficult decision to carry out the track layout work over multiple nights because I recognise how important it is to provide a direct service to and from London and the southwest, particularly as the Portsmouth Direct Line will be closed from the 11 to 19 of February as part of a multi-million-pound upgrade that has been planned for more than two years.”
Responses