Emergency repairs secure railway after landslip in Kidderminster

Friday 29 Jan 2021

Emergency repairs secure railway after landslip in Kidderminster

Region & Route:: North West & Central; | North West & Central: Central

Emergency repair work has taken place to repair a landslip on the railway in Kidderminster so passengers could be kept on the move.

Teams from Network Rail worked overnight to shore up a railway cutting which collapsed next to the Railway Train pub at Offmore Road at around 4pm yesterday (January 28).

Trains through the area were suspended so railway workers could clear a small amount of debris from the track.

Response teams also worked with fire and rescue services to remove a car left close to the edge of the partial ground collapse.

Concrete blocks were lifted into place overnight as a temporary repair. This meant trains could run again today between Stourbridge and Droitwich - albeit at a reduced speed of 20mph.

Dave Penney, Network Rail’s Central route director: “We’re sorry to passengers affected by the landslip caused by recent wet weather in Kidderminster. The sheer amount of rain we’ve had has caused the railway cutting to partially collapse and we immediately closed the railway to keep passengers safe and put our plan into action for the repairs.

“This meant trains could run again today through the area at slower speeds. Specialist engineers will be carrying out a permanent fix over the coming weeks.”

Passengers making essential journeys are being advised to check www.nationalrail.co.uk as train times will be affected while the repairs continue.

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 - North West & Central Region
07740 782954
NWCmediarelations@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.