Local residents who live near to the railway are set to benefit from a new digital service that will let people know about upcoming railway engineering work, emergency work and get updates about current maintenance and upgrade projects in ‘real-time’.

Line side neighbours living within 500m of a railway line across Network Rail’s Wessex route are encouraged to sign up to this new email service by visiting www.networkrail.co.uk/railworknearme.

This free opt-in service will keep people up-to-date with the latest information about any works going on in their neighbourhood, especially those that might cause a disturbance, providing details in a clear, accessible and timely way.

This is part of a wider national initiative that will benefit Network Rail’s 25 million neighbours nationwide.

Spanning 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges and viaducts, and thousands of level crossings and signals and stations, the railway infrastructure touches every corner of Britain. Essential works not only impact the millions who travel by rail daily, but also our millions of lineside neighbours.

Letters will still be used for those not able to access on-line systems.

Comment from the Residents' Association

We have requested this system be used to alert residents if the Crossing barriers have failed. As yet we are told Network Rail are unable to add this feature to the new system but have agreed to keep this in mind for future upgrades.

Wessex Public Affairs Team