Network Rail engineers about to start three busy weekends of work in Hampshire, from Micheldever to Brockenhurst

Thursday 5 Nov 2020

Network Rail engineers about to start three busy weekends of work in Hampshire, from Micheldever to Brockenhurst

Region & Route:: Southern: Wessex; | Southern

This weekend kickstarts a series of improvements during November to provide better journeys for Hampshire rail passengers.

Across three busy weekends, Network Rail engineers will work at several sites to improve stations in the Southampton area and maintain track and signalling from Micheldever to Brockenhurst, providing passengers with a more reliable railway and better journeys.

This means changes to services up until the weekend of 21/22 November, so passengers should note the following:

Between Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November, engineers will be replacing the ballast (stones that support the track) and improving the track between Southampton Central and Millbrook, where the pedestrian footbridge at Cracknore Road will also undergo maintenance.
During Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November, engineers will be carrying out maintenance of the track, points and signals between Eastleigh and Winchester, while just north of Micheldever station, teams will be repairing the brickwork and cleaning Popham Tunnels.
Finally, over the weekend of Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November, engineers will be replacing the ballast and improving the track between Brockenhurst and Sway, while track drainage improvements will be carried out between Ashurst New Forest and Beaulieu Road.

Mark Killick, Network Rail Wessex route director said: “We know changes to train services can be disruptive, and by doing this work at weekends we’re minimising the impact on the greater numbers of essential workers and passengers who depend on the railway during the week.

“We really appreciate our passengers’ patience while we do the work which will provide a more reliable service for years to come, and ask that they plan ahead and check the latest travel advice before starting their journeys.”

Last weekend (Saturday 31 October to 1 November) saw the renewal of footbridges at Millbrook and Totton, and at St Denys, work continued on platform canopy replacements.

Notes to Editors

Train services will be altered and buses will replace some services between Southampton Central and Bournemouth on Saturday 7 November and then from Southampton to Poole on Sunday 8 November. Throughout the weekend, buses will replace trains between Southampton Central and Salisbury.

Between Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November, train services through Winchester will be diverted and bus replacement services will operate.

During the weekend of 21 to 22 November, buses will replace trains between Southampton Airport Parkway and Bournemouth.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Martin Spencer
Martin.Spencer2@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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