{"id":197941,"date":"2025-04-09T19:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=176283"},"modified":"2025-04-09T19:34:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:34:00","slug":"early-may-bank-holiday-weekend-buses-replace-trains-in-the-basingstoke-area-while-network-rail-carry-out-vital-track-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=197941","title":{"rendered":"Early May Bank Holiday Weekend: Buses replace trains in the Basingstoke area while Network Rail carry out vital track improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/railuk.com\/infrastructure\/early-may-bank-holiday-weekend-buses-replace-trains-in-the-basingstoke-area-while-network-rail-carry-out-vital-track-improvements\/\" title=\"Early May Bank Holiday Weekend: Buses replace trains in the Basingstoke area while Network Rail carry out vital track improvements\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"485\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/09101640\/swrgwr-485x360.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear:both;max-width: 100%;\" link_thumbnail=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/09101640\/swrgwr-485x360.jpg 485w, https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/09101640\/swrgwr-80x60.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Buses will replace trains in the Basingstoke area over the early May Bank Holiday Weekend (Sunday 4 and Monday 5 May) while Network Rail complete essential track improvements.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over the two-day closure, Network Rail\u2019s engineers will be replacing the track that runs through Platform 4 at Basingstoke station as well as between Fleet and Farnborough stations. At Farnborough, the \u2018third\u2019 electric rail will also be renewed.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside this, engineers will complete a range of other work including improving how the electric current is fed to the railway west of Basingstoke; testing and commissioning new power cables between Winchester and Worting Junction, where the main line from London splits with services heading towards Salisbury and Southampton; and strengthening the embankment new Hook. Teams will be carrying track replacement and embankment stabilisation in the Bramley area.<\/p>\n<p>Engineers will also be removing 220 tonnes worth of scrap material from the railway to be recycled.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Changes to train services on Sunday 4 May and Monday 5 May<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rail replacement buses will run between Woking and Winchester\/Andover.<\/li>\n<li>South Western Railway services from London Waterloo to Weymouth will divert via Guildford and Havant. Other long-distance SWR services will start from Winchester\/Eastleigh.<\/li>\n<li>SWR Services from London Waterloo to Exeter St Davids will, instead, start at Andover.<\/li>\n<li>Additional fast services between London Waterloo and Woking will run.<\/li>\n<li>Stopping services to\/from Basingstoke will<strong>\u00a0not\u00a0<\/strong>run.<\/li>\n<li>Buses will replace Great Western Railway services between Reading and Basingstoke.<\/li>\n<li>CrossCountry services will divert via Guildford and Havant.<\/li>\n<li>On Sunday 4 May\u00a0<strong>ONLY<\/strong>, buses replace trains between Surbiton\/Leatherhead and Guildford, and between New Malden and Shepperton\/Twickenham.<\/li>\n<li>On Sunday 4 May\u00a0<strong>ONLY,\u00a0<\/strong>Queenstown Road (Battersea) station will be closed all day while we carry out track maintenance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Mark Goodall, Wessex Route Director for Network Rail, said:&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cWe appreciate that these closures, especially in an area such as Basingstoke, are incredibly inconvenient to &nbsp;passengers and we apologise for the inconvenience this will cause.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerally, we see lower passenger numbers over Bank Holiday Weekends, which is why we complete this &nbsp;work at times like these. I encourage passengers to check with their train operator before they travel and please plan ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alex Hills, Reading Station Manager for Great Western Railway, said:&nbsp;<\/strong>&#8220;We would like to thank our customers in advance for their patience while important improvement work is carried out.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But please do check before you travel, as the bus replacement journey will take a little longer than our train service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>A South Western Railway spokesperson said:&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cOur colleagues at Network Rail are set to carry out vital maintenance at locations across our network, affecting both short and long-distance services. Journey times may be longer and rail replacement buses will operate, so it\u2019s important that customers plan their journeys in advance and check before travelling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Image credit: Network Rail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/railuk.com\/infrastructure\/early-may-bank-holiday-weekend-buses-replace-trains-in-the-basingstoke-area-while-network-rail-carry-out-vital-track-improvements\/\" title=\"Early May Bank Holiday Weekend: Buses replace trains in the Basingstoke area while Network Rail carry out vital track improvements\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"485\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/09101640\/swrgwr-485x360.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"><\/a>Buses will replace trains in the Basingstoke area over the early May Bank Holiday Weekend (Sunday 4 and Monday 5 May) while Network Rail complete essential track improvements. Over the two-day closure, Network Rail\u2019s engineers will be replacing the track that runs through Platform 4 at Basingstoke station as well as between Fleet and Farnborough [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16013,16017,343,16015,47,913,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","category-industry-news","category-infrastructure","category-permanent-way","category-rail-news","category-travel","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198008,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197941\/revisions\/198008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}