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From Friday 29 March to Monday 1 April customers are being urged to check before they travel as buses replace trains across part of Network Rail’s Wessex route while Network Rail completes a range of essential upgrades to the railway as part of a wider £89m programme of investment across the country.

Lambeth Council and Network Rail have joined forces with many partners to develop an ambitious long-term plan for the future development of London Waterloo station and the surrounding Waterloo and South Bank area.

Great Western Railway services will be affected by essential maintenance work between Dorchester and Weymouth later in March.

• Samaritans’ Small Talk Saves Lives campaign launches as half the nation admit to swerving someone they don’t know to avoid small talk.
• Nearly half of British adults in the Southern region avoid engaging with someone they don’t know to avoid small talk.
• 24% are worried they would say the wrong thing when engaging with someone.
• 92% of people say they don’t have a go-to question to start small talk.
• 82% have used small talk in their personal lives over the past month.

Network Rail and South Western Railway have officially switched on new signalling equipment to bring more reliable journeys to customers travelling between Reading, London and Guildford.

Network Rail's engineers have replaced track during the February half term with the railway now reopened to customers

Network Rail is reminding customers to plan ahead and allow plenty of time as buses replace South Western Railway (SWR), Great Western Railway (GWR) and Southern trains between Southampton Central and Havant, Eastleigh and Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Central and Portsmouth Harbour this February half term – starting tomorrow (Monday 12 February).

Railway reliability upgrades by Network Rail will mean the closure of the railway between Reading, Bracknell and Gatwick Airport next week – with buses replacing trains.