ENGINEERING work will affect routes on the South Western Railway network over the festive season.
Journeys that go through Ascot will see passengers using rail replacement buses. There will also be works around Woking, Vauxhall, Earlsfield, Southampton and Guildford.
Other routes may see a reduced train frequency.
As a result, services will finish early on Christmas Eve, there will be no trains on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and weekend timetables run through to Monday, January 3,
Some times may change at short notice due to the covid pandemic, especially if Omicron variant causes staff shortages.
Claire Mann, Managing Director at South Western Railway, said:“After a difficult 18 months, we know our customers are looking forward to Christmas and the huge range of attractions and events available on our network.
“While the majority of our network will be running as normal over Christmas and New Year, there will be some changes to our timetable. We’d ask our customers planning to travel over the festive period to check the webpage before they head to the station.”
And Network Rail Wessex route director Mark Killick said: “Christmas is a busy time of year for us, as with fewer people travelling by train we have the opportunity to make improvements to the railway we can’t tackle during normal working weeks.
“I know it’s still a pain for people who are travelling and I’d like to say thank you to them for their patience and urge them to check before they travel. We need to maintain and upgrade the railway to keep it running reliably and we work closely with operators to find the least disruptive time to do that work.”
For more details, log on to: www.southwesternrailway.com/christmas
