Network Rail is advising passengers between Winchester and Southampton via Eastleigh to check before travelling due to emergency engineering works taking place.

The work follows a freight train derailment back in January at Eastleigh station, with engineering work being extended to include Saturday 22nd February 2020, this is to allow engineers to replace a set of points that was damaged in the incident.

The work will affect South Western Railway, CrossCountry and Great Western Railway trains and passengers are being advised to check with their train operator before travelling.

As this work has been scheduled at short notice, some of the online journey planners may not show the amended service.

On Saturday 22 February, London Waterloo to Poole and Weymouth services will terminate at Winchester and restart from Brockenhurst.

Throughout the weekend, there will be no services between Winchester and Southampton, with buses replacing trains.

The engineering work is also likely to affect fans attending the Aston Villa v Southampton football match on Saturday afternoon.

Once the work is complete, services will resume calling at Eastleigh from the morning of Monday 24 February.

What did the officials say?

Mark Killick, route director for Network Rail Wessex, said: “I am sorry to passengers who have experienced disruption to services over the last few weeks.

“Given that many trains from London Waterloo are currently unable to call at Eastleigh following the derailment, we needed to find a solution to replace the damaged points as soon as possible.

“Improvement work is already scheduled in the area this weekend, so, to avoid further closures, we will utilise both Saturday and Sunday to install the new points and enable services to, once again, call at the station.”

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