SERVICES through Westbury Railway Station finally resumed on Saturday morning after engineering works over-ran.

Train operator Great Western Railway was forced to continue diverting services and using replacement bus services on Saturday January 5.

Mike Gallup, Network Rail’s director of asset management and safety, apologised for the disruption to passengers, saying: “the major programme of work to upgrade track and signalling did not finish on time, owing to issues identified during the final stages of testing during the early hours of Friday morning.

“Passengers experienced disruption throughout the day on Friday, as no services were able to call at Westbury. We worked throughout the day and night to rectify the issue, with services resuming on Saturday morning.”

The work was to improve safety, reliability and performance. More work will be needed to extend platforms.

Buses were in operation instead of trains between Trowbridge and Warminster via Westbury, between Frome and Westbury and between Chippenham and Westbury via Melksham.

Train services continued to run between Cardiff Central/Bristol Temple Meads terminating at Trowbridge; and between Portsmouth Harbour/Southampton Central towards Warminster.

Ticket restrictions were lifted allowing those with tickets for travel between Cardiff and Portsmouth. Those who choose not to travel were entitled to a refund.

Customers were also able to travel on GWR services to Reading/Basingstoke and use CrossCountry or South Western Railway services towards Southampton or Portsmouth.

In addition, several local bus providers also accepting rail tickets.