WATCH: Revealing look at vital engineering works at Fareham which has disrupted rail services over the Easter holidays

Network Rail has closed the line for nine days, with bus replacement services in place, so that the embankment surrounding a 300 metre section of track can be strengthened and repaired.

Program manager Geoff Rose explained: “We have an embankment, or cutting, that has been on the move and has been slipping over a number of years. We've done some work here before in fact we've been here twice before where we've repaired slippages and we've come back again because there's been more slipages.”

The works include inserting sheet piling into the area surrounding the track, as well as removing top soil and making improvements to the ground underneath the track itself.

He said: “If we did that all that work over the over weekends we'd have to set everything up every weekend break it down every weekend. So we'd lose quite a lot of working time particularly as we have to travel backwards and forwards from the access point which is three and a half miles away. So in order to minimize the amount of disruption which would otherwise be 15 to 16 weekends we've taken the nine day blockade to carry out these works all in one.

“In addition that allows us to carry out other work on the rest of the 14 miles so we're also doing work to a footbridge down at Hamble we've been repairing that so we've been able to get access in there and some drainage work down at Hamble as well. We've done a lot of vegetation clearance, dead and dying trees and overhanging branches and things like that, between Netley and St Denys as well as doing some renewal of some wheel timbers.”

For Mr Rose’s full interview watch the video embedded in this story

Changes to train services for the rest of the Easter period are:

• Now until Friday 18 April (Good Friday): Buses will replace trains between Southampton Central and Fareham, calling at all stations.
• Saturday 19 April (Easter Saturday): Buses will replace trains between Southampton Central and Fareham, Southampton Central and Bournemouth, Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier, and Romsey and Southampton Central via Redbridge.
• Sunday 20 April (Easter Sunday): Buses will replace trains between Eastleigh and Bournemouth, Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier, Romsey and Southampton Central via Redbridge, and Southampton Central and Fareham.
• Monday 21 April (Easter Monday): All lines will reopen; however a Sunday (Bank Holiday) service will be in operation.

To buy advance rail tickets visit Trainline.

For details of live rail services visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/live-trains/