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Thursday 13 Dec 2018

Wales and Borders passengers reminded to check before they travel this Christmas and New Year

Region & Route:

Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Passengers travelling between Newport and Bristol and between Newport and Gloucester are reminded to check before travelling this Christmas and New Year, as Network Rail engineers work around the clock to modernise the South Wales Main Line.

How are journeys affected?

From the evening of Monday 24 December 2018 until Wednesday 2 January 2019:

• Buses will replace trains between Newport and Gloucester
• Buses will replace trains between Newport and Bristol Parkway

• There will be platform changes at Cardiff Central.

Network Rail is also carrying out essential maintenance work on the Valley Lines over the festive period. Between Thursday 27 and Saturday 29 December, there will be a reduced service between Bargoed and Penarth and Treherbert services will start and terminate at Cardiff Bay, instead of Cardiff Central.

Passengers are urged to plan ahead and check their journey with www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Bill Kelly, route managing director for Network Rail in Wales and Borders, said: “We would like to thank passengers for bearing with us this Christmas and New Year as over 700 of our railway workers across Wales and Borders work around the clock to deliver crucial upgrades to the network.

“We are working closely with our train operating partners to minimise disruption, and while most of the rail network across Wales and Borders is open for business as usual, some routes are affected. There is also essential rail upgrade work taking place across Britain, so we strongly advise passengers to plan ahead.”

GWR operations manager, Rob Mullen said: “We advise customers to plan their journey in advance at GWR.com, and with work at London Paddington and London Waterloo, those travelling through London to travel on or before 22 December if possible.

“While we recognise the disruption this work will cause, and thank passengers in advance for their understanding, it is vital to enable us to run more of our brand new Intercity Express Trains.

“These new trains are already delivering more seats, and will after timetable improvements agreed by Network Rail, deliver more frequent and quicker services, on more modern and reliable infrastructure.”

Colin Lea, commercial and customer experience director for Transport for Wales, said: “It’s important for customers to plan their journeys carefully this Christmas and New Year with essential engineering work taking place.

“This work is crucial for the long term improvement of the railway but equally we recognise customers will be affected and we will be doing all we can to minimise the disruption in partnership with Network Rail.

“National Rail websites, station booking offices, our journey check site - journeycheck.com/tfwrail/, our twitter account and our bilingual help centre based in north Wales can all help when planning your travel.”

Over the Christmas and New Year period, over 7,700 workforce hours will be spent delivering vital rail enhancements and maintenance across Wales and Borders.  The work taking place between Newport and Bristol forms part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan to modernise the South Wales Main Line.

Once complete in 2019, the modernisation will enable GWR's new fleet of Intercity Express Trains to run between London and Cardiff on electricity, improving journeys for passengers and creating a quieter environment for lineside neighbours.

Upgrade work taking place elsewhere on the rail network will also affect passengers travelling to and from Wales:

Sunday 23 to Wednesday 26, and Sunday 30 December:

Renewal of a junction near Southall means that there will be no direct trains to or from London Paddington and GWR services will start and terminate at Reading. Instead, passengers are advised to use the South Western Railway service between Reading and London Waterloo. 

Sunday 23 December to Thursday 3 January:

Track renewal work is taking place near Westbury meaning that Cardiff to Portsmouth services will not travel through Westbury. Instead passengers will need to use rail replacement buses between Trowbridge – Westbury – Warminster.

Train services between Bristol and Trowbridge, and between Warminster and Portsmouth, will run to an amended timetable.

Rail replacement buses also run between Westbury and Chippenham.

Passengers are advised that upgrade work will be taking place across the Great British rail network. A breakdown of how journeys will be affected can be found by visiting nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas and following #XmasRailWorks on Twitter.