Weekend bus replacements for emergency work on derailment damage

BUS replacement services will link Winchester to Brockenhurst station on Saturday as emergency works close sections of the railway line this weekend.

Passengers are advised to check before they travel as engineers continue to repair the points damaged at Eastleigh when a freight train derailed on 28th January.

On Saturday buses will replace trains between Winchester and Brockenhurst station, and on Sunday between Winchester and Southampton.

Once work is complete, services will be able to resume calling at Eastleigh from Monday morning.

Southbound trains from Basingstoke have not been stopping at the station ever since the accident, thought by investigators to have been caused by a series of damaged fastenings meant to maintain the correct distance between the rails.

The weekend work will affect South Western Railway, CrossCountry and Great Western Railway services.

Network Rail said the engineering is also likely to affect fans attending the match between Southampton FC and Aston Villa at St Mary's on Saturday at 3pm.

Mark Killick, route director for Network Rail Wessex, said: “I am sorry to passengers who have experienced disruption to services over the last few weeks.

“Given that many trains from London Waterloo are currently unable to call at Eastleigh following the derailment, we needed to find a solution to replace the damaged points as soon as possible.

“Improvement work is already scheduled in the area this weekend, so, to avoid further closures, we will utilise both Saturday and Sunday to install the new points and enable services to, once again, call at the station.”

For SWR travel updates go to www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey.