From today (Monday 15 April), trains are running again between Redhill in Surrey and Tonbridge in Kent, after Network Rail engineers fixed damage caused by a landslip at Bough Beech near Edenbridge in Kent.
Heavy rains had caused the embankment to become saturated and weakened, and the train service was suspended two weeks ago.
Over the last fortnight, engineers have worked to install ninety-one eight-metre-long sheet piles and strengthened a hundred-metre section of embankment using soil nails (steel rods).
Network Rail had to close the whole Redhill-to-Tonbridge line and arranged for buses to replace trains.
The Edenbridge area is vulnerable to landslip, and the Redhill-to-Tonbridge line closed for four months in 2019-20 following a similar problem.
Climate change causing landslips
Network Rail has pointed to climate change as an underlying cause of the instability of land in the area.
Over the last twelve months, there have been fourteen named storms, and seven of the UK's ten wettest years on record have been in the last twenty-six years.
February 2024 was the wettest February in Kent since 1836, while England as a whole saw its fourth wettest February since records began.
This month has already seen Network Rail carry out landslip repairs in West Yorkshire and in Leicestershire.
Network Rail's embankments and cuttings have experienced more than two hundred problems in the past three years, twenty of which have resulted in line closures.
It plans to spend £2.8bn over the next five years on measures to manage the effects of extreme weather. This will include building or rebuilding six hundred kilometres (373 miles) of drains to handle heavy rainfall.
Network Rail is also monitoring the condition of key sites including Bough Beech, checking for ground movement. It has placed around seventeen thousand sensors at key locations across the railway, with 670 cameras monitoring the network.
“Our colleagues have worked tirelessly around the clock with our contractors over the past two weeks to repair this landslip, on what's been quite a complex site for a number of reasons. I want to thank our passengers, freight customers and lineside neighbours for their patience while we've carried out this work, which has essentially been a giant underpinning operation.
“As each steel pile was installed we gained more and more confidence that we would be able to reopen the railway – and the work we've done here at Bough Beech will leave this line in a much more better and more reliable condition for the future.
“We're sorry for the inconvenience that has been caused but there was no option but to get this work done when we did, especially given the need to reintroduce services in time for schools reopening after the Easter break.”
Mark Killick, Network Rail Southern region director of engineering and asset management
“On behalf of our customers we're very pleased that Network Rail have completed these large and complex emergency repairs on schedule. We are aware that any disruption to our services is inconvenient for customers, so we're grateful for their patience and understanding while the work was carried out.”
While further strengthening work will continue once trains have resumed running, this work won't have an impact on trains that can now run as normal over the line.
Mark Pavlides, chief customer officer for Govia Thameslink Railway
