Disruption to South Western Railway services on the South Coast and West of England this weekend

SOUTH Western Railway (SWR) services on the West of England and Bournemouth Main Line routes serving areas of Hampshire, Dorset, and Devon will be significantly disrupted by engineering works this weekend.

Due to a nationwide shortage of bus drivers, rail replacement bus services will be much less frequent than originally planned on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 October with less overall capacity. This means that some stations will not be served or will have a more limited service, and there may be long gaps between buses at some stations.

West of England:

• Engineering works will close the line between Axminster and Exeter St Davids. There will be no trains on this section of the railway this weekend.
• On Saturday, there will be regular fast and stopping rail replacement bus coverage on this route, but customers should expect potential delays to their journeys due to limited capacity.
• On Sunday, a skeleton bus service will be in operation and may be very busy. Customers are urged to only travel if absolutely necessary and if they have to travel, please allow extra time for their journeys.

Bournemouth Main Line:

• On Saturday, engineering works will close the line between Bournemouth and Southampton. On Sunday, these works will be extended and will close the line between Bournemouth and Eastleigh. The line between Southampton and Fareham via Netley will also be closed.
• On Saturday, due to a shortage of buses, SWR cannot confirm that all rail replacement services will run on Saturday. Services that do run are likely to be busy and customers should allow extra time for their journey.
• On Saturday, there will be no rail replacement buses serving Pokesdown, Christchurch, and Hinton Admiral stations. Local bus services to Bournemouth or New Milton stations can be used to connect with rail replacement buses to Southampton but they will not necessarily stop at the stations themselves. Unfortunately, SWR tickets will not be accepted on these local bus services. You can find where local bus services are available here.
• On Sunday, between Bournemouth and Southampton, a skeleton bus service will be in operation and may be very busy. Customers are urged to only travel if absolutely necessary and if they have to travel, please allow extra time for their journeys.
• On Sunday, there will be no rail replacement buses between Southampton Central and Fareham via Netley, but there will be a normal train service between Eastleigh and Fareham via Hedge End.
• A minibus shuttle will connect Sway to Brockenhurst to connect with other rail replacement bus services.

SWR apologises to customers who will be impacted by the engineering works and the more limited rail replacement bus services available than originally planned.