National rail disruption in Surrey with replacement buses doubling …
Six Surrey train stations will be affected by a week-long line closure. The Guildford[1] to Petersfield route will be shut until Sunday (October 29) with a rail replacement bus service operating instead.
Guildford, Farncombe, Godalming[2], Milford, Witley and Haslemere[3] will all be affected by the disruption, which started on Saturday (21 October). This section of line is also an essential part of the route to London Waterloo, meaning commuters as well as half term revellers will have to make other arrangements. Those who need to travel can expect journeys to take up to twice as long as work is completed on the line.
As Guildford station has multiple routes into London, getting to the capital from the town should be doable. However, travelling South towards Portsmouth will involve getting a hour long bus to Petersfield and then catching the train from there.
At the other five stations (Farncombe, Godalming, Milford, Witley and Haslemere) there is disruption in both directions. Passengers heading to London will need to get to Guildford in order to catch the train. There is a rail replacement bus service on offer but it will take nearly double the time. Going in the other direction is more intricate and very station specific. Travellers should plan their journey’s ahead of time and look at the National Rail[6] website to see what’s involved.
However, whatever route you pick, travelling by bus will take longer. For example, the route to Guildford to Haslemere normally takes between 17 and 23 minutes. Now this journey could take more than an hour.
The work is part of a scheme to improve the line into London Waterloo. Network Rail will be laying power cables and signalling equipment as well as upgrading several level crossings. Essential earthworks will also go ahead at Haslemere, Wormley and Hammer Lane to keep the line safe from falling debris.
The disruption is not isolated to Surrey with 5 Hampshire stations also affected. Services to Liphook, Liss and Petersfield will be impacted all week. On Sunday (October 29) Havant and Rowlands Castle will also see reduced services as building work is extended for the day.
With such an ambitious project happening there will be periods of disruption until this time next year. One major upgrade will be to the signalling system. Currently the system is controlled by equipment dating back to the 1970s and is becoming harder to maintain and less reliable. It is hoped that having a new system will mean that capacity of the line will be increased.
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