Easter holiday boost for south-west as Network Rail confirms Dawlish railway reopening: Damage to the railway at Dawlish in Devon

Tuesday 4 Mar 2014

Easter holiday boost for south-west as Network Rail confirms Dawlish railway reopening

Region & Route:
National

Network Rail today announced an accelerated date for reopening the Great Western Main Line through Dawlish, reconnecting West Devon and Cornwall to the national rail network – Friday 4 April, almost two weeks earlier than the previous mid-April estimate.

Innovative approaches to sea defence and round-the-clock working by a team of more than 300 engineers have already seen huge amounts of rebuilding work completed along the damaged seafront. The main 100m breach has been repaired with nearly 5,000 tonnes of concrete and 150 tonnes of steel, and a new 200m track is ready-built for installation.

Network Rail is acutely aware of the value of the railway to the economy of the south west of England and has been working closely with local authorities, business groups and transport providers in and around Dawlish to ensure that disruption is minimised. Restoring this vital asset in time for the busy school holiday period will provide a welcome boost to the regional economy as business and tourism return to South Devon and Cornwall.

Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin said: “I saw for myself the scale of the damage to the line at Dawlish caused by the recent exceptionally bad weather. Today’s confirmation that the line should now be back in operation before the Easter holidays will be a real boost for local communities and businesses. I know that Network Rail staff have been working tirelessly to get the line up and running as soon as possible. I would like to thank everyone for their hard work so far.”

Patrick Hallgate, Network Rail’s Western route managing director, said: “We are determined to complete this work in time for the school holidays to support the vital tourism trade in Dawlish, South Devon and across the south west of England. An unfortunate event like the one experienced at Dawlish shows how important the railway is to the region’s people and its economy and I hope our efforts to restore here show how seriously we treat that responsibility.

“Even when Dawlish is complete, a great deal of work remains elsewhere. First we will bring the railway back to full capacity, then we will create solutions that will protect this vital national asset for the future. We are tackling that process head-on.”

Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, said: ”This is just one example of the extraordinary efforts by the railway industry to restore services after the unprecedented floods and storms of this winter that affected many passengers up and down the country. For now, let me express the railway industry’s gratitude for the support and understanding shown by passengers and the country as a whole.”

Carolyn Custerson, chairman of Visit Devon and chief executive of English Riviera, said: "It's excellent news that the train line is to re-open by April 4. Transport links to Devon are crucial for our visitor economy and having the line open by Easter will be a huge boost to consumer confidence helping to kickstart tourism in the region. We offer a massive thanks to the team at Network Rail who are working tirelessly to repair the line. Devon needs a fast, resilient rail service to power the regional economy and it's great to know that all routes to Devon will be open again."

Mark Hopwood, First Great Western managing director, said: "First Great Western welcomes Network Rail's commitment to reopen the line through Dawlish ahead of their mid April estimate. This is good news for the South West and for our passengers, allowing us to restore through train services linking London and Exeter with Torbay, Plymouth and Cornwall. Until the line reopens we continue to run train services between Exeter and London and between Newton Abbot and Penzance with bus services linking these to keep our passengers moving, and will do everything we can to minimise disruption to our customers' journeys."

Andy Cooper, CrossCountry managing director, added: “Every year we carry over ten thousand tourists to the region over the Easter weekend from the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland, so having direct rail services through Dawlish again will show people the railways and the South West are open for business.”

Notes to editors

Live updates on the continuing restoration work can be viewed at www.networkrail.co.uk/Dawlish/

The storms on 5 and 14 February separately caused extensive damage across the 3.7-mile coastal route between Dawlish and Teignmouth. Besides the 100m breach of the seawall at Riviera Terrace, there were also smaller secondary breaches at Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth and five landslips around Smugglers’ Cove.

A total of 18 steel containers have been installed at the main breach to serve as temporary breakwater and a scaffolding bridge was also built to reconnect the Global Crossing Cable.

The main breach has been repaired with nearly 5000 tonnes of concrete and 150 tonnes of steel, and a new 200m track is ready-built for installation. The 300-strong team of engineers will now focus on installing 120m of large concrete wall sections, repairing 525m of parapet walls and renewing 13 miles of cables between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth.

Studies are also now underway to identify an engineering option to boost the resilience of the sea defences and to examine the opportunities for an additional inland route. Led by Network Rail, these efforts go hand-in-hand to form a comprehensive long-term strategy to safeguard the rail services to Devon and Cornwall. They also build on the current restoration work and the annual £0.5m investment to maintain the sea wall.

The lead contractor on the breach repair was BAM Nuttall, while Sisk were responsible for the platform repairs, and Tony Gee, AMCO and Dyer and Butler were subcontracted. The Army and Royal Marines were instrumental in several key parts of the project and Network Rail wishes to express its thanks to them.

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 - National
020 3356 8700
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk