Network Rail completes seven-day timber and S&C renewal between Staines and Windsor

Network Rail has completed a seven-day programme of track and bridge renewals between Staines and Windsor & Eton Riverside, replacing 58 timbers and renewing switches and crossings during the October half-term closure.

The infrastructure owner said on Monday 2 November that engineers had worked around the clock from Monday 26 October to Sunday 1 November while the line was closed. Buses replaced trains for the full seven days, with services affected in the Staines, Windsor, Hounslow, Feltham and Virginia Water areas.

The work was delivered on South Western Railway's (SWR) route and Network Rail's Wessex route, according to the announcement.

Thomas Desmond, Operations Director for South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex, said: "These upgrades represent an important investment into the railway's future, improving reliability, reducing the likelihood of disruption and ensuring that we continue to provide a safe and dependable service for our customers."

The work

At a bridge between Staines and Wraysbury, engineers replaced 28 wheel timbers, the wooden blocks that support passing trains. Network Rail said the replacement allows trains to keep running over the structure at full speed.

On the approach to Windsor & Eton Riverside station, a further 30 long timbers, which support multiple tracks, were installed. Network Rail said the station is used by more than 70 train services every weekday and that the new timbers would improve the railway's long-term resilience.

Engineers also renewed the switches and crossings near Staines station, which Network Rail described as an important entry point for trains entering service.

SWR gave a month's notice of the closure on 29 September, setting out the same scope of work. Its advance notice said that over the weekend of 31 October to 1 November buses would also replace trains between Hounslow, Feltham and Virginia Water, with Feltham station closed on the Sunday.

The wider plan

Network Rail said the half-term job follows the SWR and Network Rail Wessex plan to improve reliability across the network. That plan includes a £15m investment in track and signalling between London Waterloo and Woking, which Network Rail calls the critical corridor for the wider network's performance and which it says targets some of the most common causes of delay. Network Rail's autumn release of 30 October describes the £15m as part of South Western's 'Improving Your Railway' plan.

Windsor line services join the Waterloo to Woking corridor at Queenstown Road in Battersea, where Network Rail said further improvements are being delivered. In its advance notice for the Christmas 2025 period, Network Rail said more than 350 engineers would renew track, switches and crossings and conductor rail between Queenstown Road and Nine Elms junction, with Queenstown Road station to be closed from 27 December 2025 to 4 January 2026 and its platforms to be altered to fit the new track layout.

Network Rail says the Wessex route is one of the busiest on the network, used by more than half a million people a day, with nearly 200 million passenger journeys a year, nearly 80 million of them to or from London Waterloo. Passenger numbers on the route have more than doubled in 20 years, it says.

Separately, Network Rail said leaf-busting trains will travel about 140,000 miles on the South Western network this autumn.

What happens next

The next closure on the corridor is on Saturday 7 November, when some lines in the Queenstown Road area will be shut all day for maintenance work and London Waterloo to Windsor services will be revised, according to SWR's planned works page.