For five days next month, Great Western Railway (GWR) trains between Yeovil Pen Mill and Weymouth will be replaced by buses while Network Rail engineers upgrade the track on the Heart of Wessex line.
From Monday, 16 to Friday, 20 October, engineers will be working around the clock to replace approximately 758 metres of 70-year-old track between Maiden Newton and Chetnole in Cattistock. The work is required because the present track is outdated and in need of renewal so that it can brought up to modern standards. This will help reduce the number of speed restrictions that are imposed during hot weather, and help to ensure more reliable and smoother journeys.
As well as track replacement, engineers will erect scaffolding at Evershot tunnel so that the brickwork can be repaired and repointed.
- Renewing over 1,800 metres of track and replacing old wooden sleepers with new, more durable concrete ones through Thornford station.
- Repairing and refurbishing the canopies at Maiden Newton station and repainting the station building.
- Installing new tactile paving at Yeovil Pen Mill station.
- Clearing overgrown vegetation and carrying out maintenance on vital items of railway infrastructure along the line.
Oliver Frost, Network Rail project director, said: “We're looking forward to continuing our programme of work to improve the reliability of the Heart of Wessex line next month.
“This is an important stretch of railway and over the last three years, we've invested a significant amount to bring smoother and more reliable journeys for our customers travelling between Somerset and Dorset.
“We're always finding ways to be more cost-effective and reduce the level of disruption to train services during our upgrade work. These slightly longer line closures enable us to carry out a wider range of work simultaneously which prevents the need for regular, smaller closures of the railway which would be more disruptive to customers.
“I'd like to thank customers and nearby residents in advance for their patience and understanding while we complete this work.
Jordan Welsby, Great Western Railway's station manager for the Westbury, Wiltshire and Dorset area, said: “This forms part of an ongoing programme of improvements that will enable us to maintain services for our customers travelling between Somerset and Dorset for years to come.
“We will provide alternative road transport between Yeovil Pen Mill, Dorchester West and Weymouth from Monday 16 to Friday 20 October.
“In addition, we have also agreed ticket acceptance on South Western Railway (SWR) services to ensure customers can still complete their journeys during this time.”
Improvements to railway lines to increase reliability are always welcome, but Network Rail seems now to be in the habit of closing complete lines for extended periods to do this.
I don’t recall such extended closures in the past – often a single track was worked on while the adjacent track continued to run trains. The work teams had a lookout to warn the workforce of approaching trains.
I guess Health & Safety measures have now outlawed this practice as unacceptably unsafe, but the continual bus substition now being required must surely get a lot of people out of the habit of using trains.
The problem of track renewal is made more difficult where the route is single track. The line from Castle Cary to Dorchester was originally double track, but was singled, leaving passing loops at Yeovil Pen Mill, Maiden Newton and Dorchester West.
This line is a single line.
And lookout protection is now banned.