Christmas delays for rail users (From Hampshire Chronicle)
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Christmas delays for rail users
1:57pm Thursday 1st November 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013
Engineering work is due to take place on a number of rail networks over Christmas
Some rail passengers will have to contend with disrupted services over the Christmas period once again due to planned engineering work.
But train companies said that the number of replacement bus services needed will be almost half that of the festive period last year.
And train company chiefs added that the vast majority of people expected to travel over the Christmas and new year period should experience no disruption.
Areas where engineering work is taking place this Christmas and new year include between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly in north-west England, between Wolverhampton and Stafford in the West Midlands and between Reading and Oxford in the south.
Other engineering-work areas include Sheffield to Manchester, North Wembley to Watford Junction, Wolverhampton and Crewe, Liverpool Street and Ilford in east London, Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street in Scotland and Salisbury and Yeovil in the West Country.
Among train companies which will be having to replace trains with buses on some routes over the festive period is Virgin Trains, which will have buses running between Wolverhampton and Stafford on December 27 and between Stockport and Macclesfield on New Year's Day.
Areas over which the Northern train company will be operating bus replacements on some days over the festive period include Manchester Piccadilly and Stoke-on-Trent, Carlisle and Workington and Manchester Piccadilly and Wilmslow/Crewe via Stockport.
First Great Western (FGW) is also among companies where passengers will travel on buses rather than trains on some occasions over Christmas and the new year. FGW bus-replacement areas are Didcot Parkway-Oxford and Reading-Wokingham.
South West Trains are replacing trains with buses on routes at certain times - including Templecombe-Axminster/Honiton, Wokingham-Reading and Salisbury and Yeovil Junction.
The Southeastern train company is putting on buses instead of trains on some routes on some of the days between Christmas and the new year, including Sittingbourne to Margate and Ramsgate and between Ramsgate and Minster.
