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Wednesday 28 Jan 2026

Further repairs near railway at Dawlish means overnight closure of line between Dawlish and Teignmouth

Region & Route:

Wales & Western: Western

| Wales & Western

Network Rail and Great Western Railway are working together to keep customers moving while work to fill a sinkhole near the railway at Dawlish takes place.

Following Storm Ingrid, a large sinkhole measuring 8m x 3.5m has appeared near the railway between Dawlish and Teignmouth.

The railway line will be closed between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot from 1900 on Wednesday 28 January to allow the work to take place and will reopen at 0700 on Thursday 29 January. Services will continue to run between London and Exeter St Davids, and Newton Abbot and Penzance. Buses will run between Newton Abbot and Exeter St Davids, and Plymouth and Tiverton Parkway.

The Night Riviera Sleeper service will not run in either direction between Paddington and Penzance on Wednesday evening, resuming on Thursday 29 January.

Customers should travel earlier on Wednesday 28 January or later on Thursday 29 January, when their ticket will be valid. A limited rail replacement service will be in operation, but these buses are expected to be extremely busy.

Online journey planners are being updated and customers should check before travelling.

Network Rail engineers will be onsite throughout the night working to fill the sinkhole with 200 tonnes of spoil. The footpath between Teignmouth and Smugglers' Lane will also be closed from Wednesday evening to allow for the safe completion of this repair work and will reopen early next week.

Network Rail route director Marcus Jones added: “Extreme weather during Storm Ingrid left a sinkhole near the railway that requires repair as soon as possible. Our teams need to close the railway on Wednesday evening for 12 hours to allow us to safely move heavy equipment to the area and start working to fix this issue. We’re very grateful to passengers and local residents for their patience while we complete these essential repairs.

“To ensure this work can be completed safely, the footpath between Teignmouth and Smuggler’s Lane will also be closed from the evening of Wednesday 28 January until early next week. We’re working as quickly as we can and will reopen the path as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

GWR managing director Mark Hopwood said: "To continue to be able to provide safe and reliable services on this really important section of track linking Devon and Cornwall, we need to make this repair as soon as possible.

“To do so will unfortunately impact a small number of journeys, and we are working to keep this to a minimum. Please do however aim to complete your travel by 1900 on Wednesday eve between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot. We aim to have the line reopen early on Thursday morning though further inclement weather is forecast over the coming days and as ever the safety of our customers and colleagues is always our top priority.”