Media centre

Tuesday 7 Apr 2026

Passenger and freight services resume after Network Rail and South Western Railway carry out vital maintenance near Eastleigh

Region & Route:

Southern: Wessex

Network Rail and South Western Railway have completed vital track maintenance in the busy rail corridor between Eastleigh and Southampton, which will improve reliability and reduce delays.

Lines reopened this morning, Tuesday 7 April, allowing passenger and freight services to resume. Around 3,000 services pass through the busy rail corridor each week, including freight trains on their way to one of the country’s busiest container ports.

By operating as an integrated railway, Network Rail and South Western Railway carried out a range of improvement work to improve the railway during a four-day line closure.

The main objective of this project was to enhance the track alignment within the Eastleigh railway corridor, which accommodates approximately 3,000 passenger and freight train movements each week. The work resulted in several key improvements, including:

• Treating saturated track, known as wet beds, to make journeys smoother for passengers and freight
• Renewing sleepers and wheel timbers, the long blocks which support the tracks over bridges and viaducts
• Maintaining insulated block joints, vital parts of the signalling system, which help signallers know where trains are
• Repairing switches and crossings, which allow trains to move from one track to another
• Drainage improvement works to reduce the risk of flooding
• Maintaining lineside vegetation

By combining resources and coordinating efforts, the integrated railway delivered more improvements for passengers with less disruption. During the Easter weekend, over 2,400 work hours were completed across the four day line closure..

Speaking on behalf of South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex, George Murrell, Route Renewals Director, said: “We’d like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding over the course of the Easter weekend. These improvements will improve journeys, as well as making it a more reliable railway for freight, heading to one of the country’s busiest and most important shipping terminals in Southampton."