Network Rail are doing a five-day rebuild on a stretch of the line from Southampton to Bournemouth in November, and have timed it for weekdays (1st-5th) not over he weekend.
Their press release explains:
Mark Killick, Network Rail Wessex route director, said: “This critical improvement work will improve journeys, making them more resilient and allowing us to remove speed restrictions.
“To support the country building back from the pandemic and as a reflection of a rise in leisure and tourism travellers to the South Coast, this critical work will be completed over five weekdays rather than closing the railway for a number of weekends.
"Changing travel patterns mean our railway is busier at weekends than midweek and it’s important for us to minimise the number of people affected by the work being carried out. We never take the decision to close a busy stretch of railway lightly and have reviewed our approach carefully to confirm it is the best option.
I had wondered if the automatic choice of days for major works would shift away from weekends in response to lower levels of travel to work, both now and as projected post-Covid (or at least steady-state Covid). But I expected it first for holiday times, and I doubt that tourist traffic for Bournemouth in November is much of a thing. Still, over the summer, my Wokingham car park count has shown Saturday to be as busy as any weekday, which does suggest a general leveling out of passenger numbers across the week.
