South Western Railway has announced its plans for engineering work over Christmas and New Year.

The train company is asking customers to plan ahead, with reduced train frequency and rail replacement buses on routes where the line is closed.

A Saturday or Sunday timetable will be operating from tomorrow (Monday December 20) until January 3 - with no service on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

There will also be an earlier close of service on Christmas Eve.

Network Rail Wessex route director Mark Killick said that improvements are made at this time of year as fewer people are travelling by train.

He 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."

Claire Mann, Managing Director at South Western Railway, added: “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.”

SWR have a dedicated webpage with key information for their train services over the festive period: www.southwesternrailway.com/christmas

The Omicron variant also means increasing numbers of staff are having to self isolate, so there may be further short notice changes to services, which you can check at: www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey

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