Weekday blockade indicates change in industry outlook

Network Rail is shifting a major engineering blockade to account for changing travel patterns since the pandemic.

Instead of weekend closures or shutting tracks over the autumn half-term, a project on the South West Main Line has been moved to five weekdays in November.

Network Rail’s Wessex Region needs to replace track in the New Forest area, between Southampton and Bournemouth, that will result in the removal of several speed restrictions.

Previously this would have been done over four weekends. With post-COVID traffic to the South Coast resort recovering faster for leisure travel, the work was shifted initially to a week in October, coinciding with school half-term.

Read more in RAIL 940