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Residents living in South Gloucestershire have been invited to an event this week to find out more about ongoing upgrades of the Great Western mainline.

Passengers travelling between South Wales, Bristol Parkway and London Paddington are reminded to Check Before You Travel from this weekend as Network Rail prepares to undertake a series of major upgrades and electrification work on the line between Swindon and Bristol Parkway.

Work which will enable improvements in line speeds to ease congestion on the railway into and out of Oxford has been completed as part of a £200m upgrade programme, allowing services between Oxford, Didcot and Banbury to run as normal this morning.

Passengers travelling through South Gloucestershire are to benefit from a new flood alleviation scheme to improve the resilience of the railway at Chipping Sodbury.

To meet the expected growth in passenger numbers in the Bristol area, Network Rail is replacing the Victorian-era Stapleton Road railway viaduct with demolition set to begin next week. This work will enable Network Rail to double the number of rail lines – from two to four –as part of the Filton Bank Four-tracking project, increasing train services in the region.

Better access to Newbury railway station is a step closer as work to replace the station’s footbridge started this week as Network Rail continues to deliver its Railway Upgrade Plan.

Passengers are reminded that services will not run between Oxford, Didcot Parkway and Banbury for nine days from Saturday 22 July as Network Rail undertake vital work which will improve will improve line speeds into and out of Oxford when final commissioning is completed in summer 2018.

Users of the renowned Warleigh Weir beauty spot at Claverton are being urged to pay more attention to the railway after reports of five near misses with trains in as many weeks.