Following a nine-day closure of the busy commuter line between London Waterloo and Portsmouth, it reopened as planned earlier today Monday, 30 October.
The line had been closed from Saturday, 21 until yesterday, Sunday, 29 October whilst engineers worked around the clock to update 50-years old signalling equipment between Farncombe and Petersfield. That work included:
- constructing foundations for the signals and installing new signal posts and signal gantries at each end of Haslemere station;
- laying power cables at Princess Bridge;
- constructing a signalling equipment building at Milford.
Other work carried out during the line's closure included:
- upgrading several level crossings between Farncombe East and Liss;
- stabilising lineside cuttings at Haslemere and Wormley to reduce the risk of vegetation debris falling onto the track;
maintaining track in Haslemere; - renovating the canopies at Farncombe station;
- repairing the brickwork at Guildford tunnel;
- cutting back overgrown trees and hedges along the line.
The work is all part of the Portsmouth Direct Upgrade programme that is planned for completing by October next year. Other work to be carried out during that programme is upgrading the signalling, track, and level crossings between Woking and Portsmouth Harbour.
Once complete, services on the route will be more reliable, level crossings will be safer, journey times will be reduced, and there will be the potential to operate more train services in the future.
Mark Killick, Network Rail's Wessex route director, said: “I'd like to thank customers and local residents for their continued patience and understanding while we carried out further works on this key stretch of railway which links London Waterloo to the south coast.
“The work is crucial to improving the reliability of the railway for customers travelling between Portsmouth and London Waterloo and will help reduce journey times as well as provide the opportunity to increase the number of services in the future.”
Peter Williams, South Western Railway's customer and commercial director, commented: “I'm pleased to see Network Rail continue to make progress on these major track and signalling improvements. Making the decision to close parts of the network is really difficult because we know how disruptive it can be to customers' journeys.
“I thank customers for their patience as these essential upgrades have been carried out, which when completed will boost the performance of the line for many years to come.”
From my personal experience over three years of weekly travelling between Surbiton and Portsmouth Harbour, some years ago, IMHO the biggest improvement to the service would be to make it non-stop between Woking and Portsmouth & Southsea in the evenings.