Network Rail and South Western Railway are issuing travel advice for rail customers not to attempt travel between Salisbury and Exter until Monday the 11th of December. The closure of the railway comes following a landslip at Crewkerne Tunnel and will allow access to Network Rail engineers to carry out a repair.
Monday the 4th of December saw more than 90mm of rainfall leading to flooding when monitoring sensors detected movement in the earth of the cutting over the tunnel's entrance which is located on the line between Crewkerne and Yeovil Junction stations.
Network rail carried out assessment inspections overnight prior to work getting underway during the early hours, which involved engineers abseiling down the cutting to remove vegetation ahead of excavating debris.
Whilst the railway is closed, work will take place through day and night and will see approximately 100 tonnes of clay, soil and vegetation excavated from the entrance of the tunnel which will work towards the stabilisation of the cutting.
The initial period of excavation will be completed by hand and will be lowered to the track using chutes prior to its removal using an engineering train. Later, a long-reach excavator will be introduced and sited over the top of the tunnel to continue the complex task.
Due to the urgent work, South Western Railway will not be able to run trains between Salisbury and Exeter St David's until Monday the 11th of December. Rail replacement buses planned to support customers are unfortunately impacted due to continued severe flooding with passengers advised not to attempt travel between the aforementioned stations.
Matt Pocock, Network Rail Wessex route director, said:
“I would like to say how sorry we are for the disruption passengers are experiencing following a landslip at Crewkerne tunnel.”
“We've experienced over 90mm of sustained heavy rain over the past 48 hours and this has resulted in movement in the earth on the cutting above the tunnel entrance which, if action isn't taken, could spill over onto the tracks and risk the safety of passenger services.”
“Our team of engineers are already working extremely hard day and night and in all conditions to remove over 100 tonnes of debris and will be doing all they can so we can reopen the line and passengers can resume travelling on Monday morning.”
Steve Tyler, South Western Railway's Performance and Planning Director, said:
“We're really sorry that the emergency closure of Crewkerne tunnel means we won't be able to serve stations between Salisbury and Exeter St David's until Monday.”
“We know how disruptive this is for customers in run up to Christmas, so our teams are examining potential ways to run an extremely limited service between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction via Westbury in the coming days. Please check our website for the latest updates.”
The line between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction was already closed for engineering, with trains diverted via Westbury – Castle Cary – Yeovil Penn Mill. Approaches to SWR on Monday and Tuesday asking why they were not running trains between Exeter St David’s and Axminster, only received the response that “The line between Exeter and Yeovil Junction is closed” When I pointed out that only the line between Chard Junction and Yeovil Junction is closed, and that GWR were still running their once daily Barnstaple to Axminster service, and that SWR recently ran EXD to AXM trains during earlier engineering work I received a response of total silence. I also pointed out that the Exeter to Axminster section is pretty busy with commuters and college students as well as Christmas shoppers. I feel SWR’s response has been extremely poor on this occasion.
Top cat, you have to remember this is Britain. However the line west of Salisbury is virtually single track and the loops are not long enough to accommodate a engineers train, I can only assume the train will be used to remove the spoil away from the tunnel and trying to get it opened as quickly as possible they don’t want other trains in the way. Unfortunately until that section gets redoubled there will always be disruptions.
Now I always thought that Crewkerne was west of Yeovil in the direction of exeter. So the route from Salisbury to Yeovil should be available …. So why are services being terminated short at Salisbury ?. And yet everyone is so sorry for the disruption ….