NO RAIL services will run between Winchester and Southampton this weekend, with buses set to replace trains on several routes.

It comes after the derailment of a freight train at Eastleigh station on January 28, which came off the tracks due to a "infrastructure fault".

As a result, engineering work scheduled for this Sunday has been extended to include Saturday so that Network Rail engineers can replace a set of points that were damaged in the derailment.

According to Network Rail, engineering work is also likely to affect fans attending the Aston Villa vs Southampton football match on Saturday.

Once the work is complete, services will resume calling at Eastleigh from Monday.

Mark Killick, route director for Network Rail Wessex, said: “I am sorry to passengers who have experienced disruption to services over the last few weeks.

“Given that many trains from London Waterloo are currently unable to call at Eastleigh following the derailment, we needed to find a solution to replace the damaged points as soon as possible.

“Improvement work is already scheduled in the area this weekend, so, to avoid further closures, we will utilise both Saturday and Sunday to install the new points and enable services to, once again, call at the station.”