Media centre

Friday 4 Dec 2015

Landslips and flooding on Carlisle to Workington line with more bad weather on the way

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

Network Rail's orange army was today working to reopen the railway between Workington and Carlisle after heavy rain caused flooding and landslips overnight (Thursday).

Two track-side landslips, at the villages of Wigton and Aspatria, and four separate floods at Maryport have led to Northern Rail services on this line being cancelled until further notice.

Northern Rail is running replacement buses between Workington and Carlisle, taking care to avoid the roads locally that have also been affected by flooding.

These weather-related incidents occurred ahead of further forecast storms tomorrow (Saturday), which have led to 50mph speed limits being imposed on the Cumbrian coast to ensure passengers' safety.

Martin Frobisher, Network Rail's route managing director, said: "We care about getting services running again for passengers as soon as possible. That is our top priority but we will only reopen this stretch of railway when we are certain it is safe.

"Severe gales are forecast for the Cumbrian coast tomorrow and flood warnings are in place. As a result we will have 50mph speed restrictions on West Coast main line train services. This is to ensure our people and passengers are safe."

Train passengers are advised to check the latest travel information at www.nationalrailenquiries.co.uk. 

A spokesperson for Northern Rail said: "Train services are being replaced by buses between Workington and Carlisle until further notice. We have members of our station team at Workington and Carlisle to assist.

"We would like to apologise to our customers for this disruption. Network Rail engineers are working hard to return the railway to us as soon as possible."

Customers can also get real-time journey updates by visiting www.journeycheck.com/northernrail or tweeting @northernrailorg.

Network Rail has drafted in additional orange army members across the north west in readiness to deal with any further weather-related incidents - tree falls, embankment slips, floods and the like - over the weekend.