WORK to maintain the Severn Tunnel continued over the weekend, with new pictures showing the work being carried out.

No rail services have run between Newport Railway Station and Bristol during the weekend throughout October as a result of the work.

With one further weekend of disruption expected, Network Rail has shared an update on the work being carried out inside the tunnel, which runs for four miles - more than half of which is under the Severn Estuary.

Engineering work has been taking place in and around the tunnel itself – in a bid to keep the tracks, and the tunnel itself in good working order, to prevent future disruption.

Pictures show that along with the works being carried out in the darkness of the tunnel, supports under the track on approach to the tunnel are also being replaced.

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But, while the works will be of benefit to those using this route to travel from Newport in the direction of London Paddington, there has been some significant disruption in the short term.

Principally, there have been no trains operating this route each and every weekend this month – which is set to continue up until October 31.

It has left passengers hoping to cross the border having to rely on the often dreaded replacement bus services.

Coaches have been called upon to ferry people from Newport to Bristol Parkway and Temple Meads, along with stations in-between, such as Severn Tunnel Junction.

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In order to cope with the influx of coaches, the decision has been made to temporarily close the customer car park during weekends too, to allow station staff to marshal passengers onto the correct buses.

This, along with the closure of the taxi pickup point at the front of the station due to improvement works, has left the short stay car park and roads directly surrounding the station looking much busier than usual in recent times.

But, with the tunnel work expected to be completed in just a matter of days, there is hope that the area will soon return to some sort of normality.