Guildford passengers advised to Check Before You Travel ahead of weekend upgrades

Route: Wessex

Network Rail is advising passengers in the Guildford area to ‘Check Before You Travel’ over two full weekends and two Sundays in April and May while it invests £800,000 to renew important sections of track to make journeys more reliable.

Guildford is one of the busiest stations in the south of England with 8.2 million passengers in 2015/16, and the lines through Guildford are used heavily by services connecting Waterloo to the south coast. Network Rail’s orange army will be replacing key sections of switches and crossings, as well as over 200 metres of track, just to the south of the station platforms to make journeys more reliable for passengers.

The upgrades will take place over the weekends of 1 & 2 April and 8 & 9 April, as well as on Sunday 30 April and Sunday 21 May. Replacement bus services will operate during these times. South West Trains and Great Western Railway passengers are advised to check their journeys in advance.

Becky Lumlock, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “As part of our Railway Upgrade Plan, we’re investing £800,000 to make the railway at Guildford more reliable. This is an important part of our commitment to provide a better railway to the growing numbers of passengers.

“I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we complete our upgrades, and remind them to check before you travel to avoid unnecessary delays.”

Network Rail will also be undertaking follow-up work overnight on Monday to Thursday during the weeks commencing 3 April, 10 April, 1 May and 22 May, although this will not impact services.

Passengers can check how their journeys may be impacted by visiting nationalrail.co.uk