Network Rail has revealed that all four lines running through Hook in Hampshire will reopen by Friday the 24th of February following a major landslip. Engineers are working around the clock to complete the urgent repairs.
The landslip took place on Saturday the 14th of January to the northeast of Hook station and left just two tracks out of four passable by trains.
The location of the slip is extremely remote and required engineers to build a 580-metre access road over fields in order to get materials and machinery on site prior to repair work getting underway.
Part of the repair will see engineers build a 60-metre retaining wall made from one hundred 12-metre long ‘sheet piles' which a driven into the ground. The sheet piles support the stabilisation of the embankment and will protect the railway in the future. The repair has also seen engineers use 9,000 tonnes of stone and will also regrade the slope of the embankment in order to lessen the risk of falling material.
After the landslip occurred, it had a huge impact on train services with just one train able to operate every 90 minutes between Basingstoke and Woking. Shortly after the landslip took place, Network Rail opted to reconfigure the track layout, moving it onto a stable area of the embankment which allowed six trains to operate every hour. Whilst this move created an improvement in train services over the last few weeks whilst repair work to the embankment was taking place, further engineering work will see a closure put in place for the railway following the embankment's full repair in order to return the track layout to its original placement.
This video shows Route Director Mark Killick provide an update:
From the start of service on Monday the 13th of February following the completion of repair work on the embankment:
- Trains heading to Basingstoke will be able to call at Hook once again.
- Trains will continue to run at a reduced frequency.
From Monday the 13th to Thursday the 23rd of February:
- Engineers will close the railway between Farnborough and Basingstoke early each night in order to restore the track to its original layout
- Alterations will take place for late-night and early-morning services.
- The last through services between London Waterloo station and Basingstoke (stopping), Portsmouth Harbour via Eastleigh, Salisbury and Weymouth will depart much earlier than usual.
- South Western Railway (SWR) is organising rail replacement buses which will operate between Woking/Farnborough and Basingstoke after 10pm each evening.
- Services for Monday the 13th to Friday the 17th of February will be updated in Journey Planners by the morning of Friday the 10th of February.
- Services from Saturday the 18th to Friday the 24th of February are being finalised and will be updated when possible.
- Advice is being given to customers to check their travel plans ahead of making their journey and to include plenty of extra time in order to complete their travel.
- From Friday the 24th of February, all four lines will be open with the full timetable fully reinstated.
- Network Rail engineers and South Western Railway are working hard in order to reinstate some services sooner where possible.
Mark Killick, Network Rail's Wessex route director, said: “We'd like to thank customers and residents living alongside the railway for their patience while we've carried out this major repair.
“Fixing the landslip at Hook has been an incredibly tough and complicated job. I'm so sorry our customers will have to endure more disruption before we can reopen all four lines. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution, but this approach is the least disruptive to our customers overall.
“We've taken the difficult decision to carry out the track layout work over multiple nights because I recognise how important it is to provide a direct service to and from London and the southwest, particularly as the Portsmouth Direct Line will be closed from the 11 to 19 of February as part of a multi-million-pound upgrade that has been planned for more than two years.
“It's crucial this work goes ahead because customers wouldn't see the benefits soon enough and it would cost taxpayers a fortune to reschedule and cause more disruptive closures in the future.”
Stuart Meek, South Western Railway's chief operating officer, said: “The landslip at Hook has caused our customer's significant disruption for more than three weeks now, so it is welcome news to hear we are a step closer to the embankment repairs being completed.
“To give Network Rail the time they need to realign the tracks, whilst also considering the large amount of engineering work across the rest of our network, we will need to make some changes to our late night and early morning services.
“We will confirm these alterations just as soon as we can. We're very grateful for our customers' continued patience through what has been a frustrating period of disruption.”
