Network Rail has thanked passengers for their patience while engineers carried out railway upgrades on its Wessex route over the festive period.

Workers carried out several key upgrades, aiming to improve reliability across the route, which includes south west London, Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Southampton area: signalling maintenance and renewals

From Christmas Eve (Sunday 24 December) to Friday 29 December, engineers worked night and day to upgrade the signalling on the line between Southampton Airport Parkway and Brockenhurst, and between St Denys and Fareham.

This included replacing over twelve thousand metres of life-expired cable was with modern multicore cables which will extend the signalling equipment’s life for the next fifty years.

Woking and Brookwood: landslip stabilisation

On 27, 28 and 29 December, Network Rail engineers continued work to stabilise the landslip between Woking and Brookwood by installing further piles to strengthen the cutting.

Guildford to Petersfield: signalling upgrades

From Saturday 30 December to Monday 1 January, while engineers continued upgrading the signalling system as part of the wider Portsmouth Direct Upgrade programme, closing the line between Guildford and Petersfield.

The work included installing signal structures and piles between Farncombe and Haslemere stations, and installing Relocatable Equipment Buildings (REB) at Liphook and Liss, and boosting drainage at Wormley cutting.

The work aims to improve reliability, make level crossings safer, cut journey times, and create the potential for more train services in the future.

Matt Pocock, Network Rail’s Wessex route director, said: “We’d like to thank customers for their patience whilst our engineers worked around the clock to carry out several reliability improvements across the Wessex region to benefit customers for years to come.”

A South Western Railway spokesperson,said: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience as these important improvements were carried out over the busy festive period, which will help boost reliability in the years ahead.”