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Incident in the Salisbury area

On Sunday 31 October, emergency services responded to an incident at Fisherton Tunnel near Salisbury station involving a Great Western Railway train service from Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads and a South Western Railway train service from London Waterloo to Honiton.

The line between Salisbury and Romsey remains closed due to the incident. Work has now begun to remove the damaged trains and to carry out any necessary repairs to the signals and replace the track. This work is expected to take some time to complete, and the railway will remain closed until at least Monday 15 November.

Train journeys will continue to be disrupted between Westbury, Southampton Central, Portsmouth Harbour and Brighton, but trains are running between Portsmouth Harbour and Romsey, and between Salisbury and Cardiff Central.

A rail replacement service will continue to operate between Romsey and Salisbury.

Customer Advice for travel on alternative routes:

These handy route maps provide a summary of the alternative routes available

map for alternative routes from Cardiff and Bristol to Southampton and Portsmouth during disruption caused by Salisbury incident
map for alternative routes from Honiton to London BMH during disruption caused by Salisbury incident
map for alternative routes from Honiton to London during disruption caused by Salisbury incident
map for alternative routes for Westbury to Southampton during disruption caused by Salisbury incident

  • Customers travelling from South Wales, Bristol or Bath towards the South Coast may use their ticket on services to Reading and change there for CrossCountry services to Southampton Central. Customers for Fareham and Portsmouth stations should change at Basingstoke for South Western Railway services to these destinations.
  • Customers travelling from Portsmouth stations and Fareham to Bath, Bristol or South Wales may travel on South Western Railway services to Basingstoke and change there for Great Western Railway or CrossCountry services to Reading. From Reading there are frequent Great Western Railway services towards Bath, Bristol and South Wales.
  • Customers travelling from Southampton Central to Bath, Bristol or South Wales may travel on CrossCountry services to Reading. Customers may also travel on South Western Railway services to Basingstoke and change there for Great Western Railway services to Reading. From Reading there are frequent Great Western Railway services towards Bath, Bristol and South Wales.

Replacement road transport:

  • Replacement road transport is running between Salisbury and Romsey, in both directions. Coaches depart Salisbury for Romsey at 40 minutes past the hour and departing Romsey for Salisbury at 40 minutes past the hour. The journey time by road between Salisbury and Romsey is approximately 45-50 minutes.
Please check before you travel to get the latest updates.

Summary of Ticket Acceptance with other operators:

  • Southern Railway is accepting GWR tickets between Brighton and Southampton Central and also between Brighton and London Victoria.
  • South Western Railway is accepting GWR tickets between Romsey and Portsmouth & Southsea
  • London Underground is accepting GWR tickets between London Paddington, London Waterloo and London Victoria.
  • CrossCountry is accepting GWR tickets between Southampton Central and Reading.

Tickets and refunds:

If you are affected by this disruption, you are able to claim compensation for delays of 15 minutes or more. Find out more about claiming a refund or rebooking your journey.