Great Western Coffee Shop

I don't know if this has been mentioned elsewhere.

Noticed signs today, at Winchester, on the Southampton Docks Access Improvement scheme that will cause major disruption around Southampton weekends in February and into March. Lots of diversion and rail replacement. Will also affect GWR and CC services.

There were plans to re-build a couple of road bridges over the railway lines to the North of Southampton Central - one by St Mary's Stadium and one a bit further up. It may be these plans coming to fruition.

This is to do with work between Millbrook and Redbridge, specifically access to those sidings used by Freightliner that currently end just east of Redbridge station. The plans see them extended towards the river Test, it’s about shunting and forming up maximum length container trains, (775m? or whatever it is).

I think there’s been a bit of a planning saga about land take to do with the trees on the south of the railway near Redbridge station.  I also think the slice of land they are having to buy from Southampton City Council was previously sold by the port operator, having been sold to them by British Rail...   

Paul

Ironic presumably each sale with an extra 0 on the end.

According to SCC, the planning saga has not yet ended, in that the application has not been decided. The issue seems to be that part of the once and soon to be (maybe) sidings land is now public open space, which the residents of Redbridge feel they are rather short of. So NR have had to offer the only bit of "amenity" land they can find in return, viz. a car park on the other side of the station.

The name Southampton Docks Access Improvement would apply just as well to what Highways England are doing to the Redbridge roundabout starting in May - adding some lanes to it, mainly. But that work doesn't impact on the railway, not even to add drainage (which does run under it to the Test, but can cope as is). HE claim that work is all permitted development, hence no planning application.

NR's scheduled work for Feb/Mar is mainly track renewals and S&T, plus a few items done "while it's closed anyway". Now there is some resignalling proposed as part of the sidings stretching, and no doubt that would be useful in any case, as might be some of the track changes, so maybe they are being done this time. After that the remaining work has less need of a possession of the running lines.

There does seem to be a lot more than that happening. Lines also appear to be closed from the North and the East to Southampton Central at Woolston/Fareham/St Denys at varying times.

All track renewals and signalling, as far as I can see, including at least one closure right through from Eastleigh to Brockenhurst. It looks as if the Southampton Docks Access Improvement label is being used by NR for the part of the signalling work related to access into the Western/Maritme docks.

That sort of thing has been happening for a few weeks every year as long as I can remember.  I suspect the PR people just highlight what is considered “new” rather than the usual maintenance or renewals that would just be yet another weekend of disruption like any other.

Paul