Good news for passengers as Farnham to Alton railway line set to re-open early following landslip: Wrecclesham Landslip, April 2016 (1)

Friday 29 Apr 2016

Good news for passengers as Farnham to Alton railway line set to re-open early following landslip

Region & Route:
| Southern: Wessex
| Southern

Network Rail expects to re-open the railway line between Farnham and Alton on Wednesday 4 May, five days earlier than originally planned after a small army of engineers worked around the clock to stabilise the track at Wrecclesham.

John Halsall, Network Rail’s Route Managing Director said: “This is fantastic news for passengers and I’m delighted that we can re-open the line early for them. Our engineers faced an enormous task to bring the railway safely back into use as quickly as possible, and they really have delivered by stabilising one side of the embankment and shifting the track onto that side.

“Now that we’ve overcome the first hurdle, our attention will turn to providing a permanent solution and re-building the whole embankment from the bottom up.

“In the meantime I’d like to thank passengers for their patience and our lineside neighbours for their understanding during these vital works. Our neighbours have been fantastic in working with us during this period of disruption.”

Christian Roth, Managing Director of South West Trains, added: “I’d like to thank our passengers for their patience during the last few weeks and the teams on site for all their hard work to get the line reopened ahead of schedule.

“We will continue to work closely with Network Rail and keep passengers informed ahead of future works to stabilise the embankment but we look forward to trains serving Alton, Bentley and Farnham stations from Wednesday morning.”

The line between Alton and Farnham was closed on 13 April after engineers found the track was starting to dip, and South West Trains immediately implemented a bus replacement service for passengers. Network Rail engineers investigated the landslip further and began work to stabilise the 250m stretch of track by drilling reinforcing ‘piles’ eight metres into the ground beneath.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - Owen Johns
Media relations manager (Wessex route)
07710 959476
Owen.Johns@networkrail.co.uk

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