A reminder has been issued by Network Rail for South Western Railway customers who are travelling over the Christmas and New Year period due to planned engineering work, which will see a number of services changed whilst the work takes place.

Most of the country will find the rail network running as usual over the Christmas and New Year period. However, Network Rail’s Wessex route will see several vital upgrades taking place, including:

The Southampton Area:

• From Sunday the 24th to Friday the 29th of December
• The line between Southampton Airport Parkway and Brockenhurst and between St Denys and Fareham will be closed.
• On Sunday the 24th and between Wednesday the 27th and Friday the 29th of December, rail replacement buses will be in operation between Eastleigh, Southampton Airport Parkway and Bournemouth, and between Southampton Central and Fareham

The work will see signalling maintenance and renewals take place in the area and will see more than 12,000 metres of life-expired cable replaced with state-of-the-art multicore cables which will support the equipment for a further 50 years.

Woking and Brookwood: 

• From Wednesday the 27th to Friday the 29th of December
• South Western Railway services between Woking and Basingstoke will be significantly reduced with customers advised to only travel if absolutely necessary.
• Customers who must travel are advised to check their full travel plans using journey planners which will carry fully up-to-date information from Saturday the 23rd of December

Work will continue to stabilise a landslip which took place in November between Woking and Brookwood and will see more piles installed in order to strengthen the cutting.

Guildford to Petersfield: 

• From Saturday the 30th of December to Monday the 1st of January 2024
• The line between Guildford and Petersfield will be closed
• Rail replacement buses will be in operation between Guildford and Petersfield via Haslemere during this time

Work will take place upgrading the signalling system under the Portsmouth Direct Upgrade programme, which will improve the railway into the future.

The following work will take place during the line closure:

• The installation of signal structure and piles between Farncombe and Haslemere stations
• The installation of Relocatable Equipment Buildings at Liphook and Liss
• Safety improvements carried out at level crossings across the route

Matt Pocock, Network Rail’s Wessex route director, said:

“Our passengers want and deserve a safe and reliable railway, which is why thousands of our engineers will be working during the Christmas and New Year break to complete these important upgrades for the benefit of our customers.”

“Significantly fewer people travel over Christmas, which is why we do this scale of work at this time of year. However, more than 96% of the rail network will be open over the festive period but for those customers who plan to travel by train, please check with your train operator or through the National Rail enquiries website before you travel.”

A South Western Railway spokesperson, said:

“With essential maintenance and improvement work taking place on parts of our network, it is important that customers check before they travel over the Christmas period. While repairs continue at the landslip near Woking, our advice to customers whose trains travel between Woking and Basingstoke, between Wednesday 27 and Friday 29 December, is to only travel if absolutely necessary. We’d like to thank our customers for their continued patience and we look forward to seeing them travel with us in the new year.”