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Passengers travelling to and through Southampton are reminded to check before they travel at weekends between now and May as Network Rail will be carrying out extensive planned improvement work to increase the reliability of the railway in the Southampton area.

Network Rail is mobilising its engineers to assess damage to the railway, whilst exploring a temporary solution to enable some services to run, as flood water starts to recede at Bridgwater.

Network Rail today announced an accelerated date for reopening the Great Western Main Line through Dawlish, reconnecting West Devon and Cornwall to the national rail network – Friday 4 April, almost two weeks earlier than the previous mid-April estimate.

A £250 million programme to improve the railway between Stafford and Crewe is investing in the future of the country’s workforce with the arrival of three new apprentices.

Rail passengers in the Sheffield and Chesterfield areas will be able to travel on their usual services from next weekend (Saturday 8 March) once engineers complete work to allow the line to re-open ahead of schedule.

People living and working in Sleaford and Metheringham are invited to two public events to find out more about plans for investment in the railway in their area.

Plans to reopen the full length of the Hastings to Tonbridge line tomorrow (Monday) have suffered a setback after a landslip under repair started moving again.

Work starts next week (3 March) on a new 58-space car park for Collingham station.