Thursday 6 Feb 2014
Network Rail reopens Dorking-Horsham railway five days ahead of schedule
- Region & Route:
- | Southern: Wessex
- | Southern
After more than a month’s work by Network Rail engineers and contractor BAM Nuttall, the landslip at Ockley has been repaired five days ahead of schedule.
More than 4,000 tonnes of new material has been put in place to rebuild the railway where the embankment collapsed at Christmas, supported by a new wall of sheet steel, embedded in the ground.
A limited service from operator Southern had been operating over the undamaged track at peak times, but full service will now resume.
Network Rail’s route managing director Tim Robinson said: “This has been a fantastic effort from everyone involved. We have had teams on site since the line first collapsed on December 25 and a great deal of work had to be done just to get equipment to the location. We couldn’t have achieved that without the help and support of local residents, and we appreciate their involvement.
“We have also really appreciated passengers’ patience during the disruption and we thank them for their understanding. We will now begin the task of returning the worksite to nature and removing the access road.”
A spokesman for Southern said: “We’re very pleased for our passengers that the line is now open. Network Rail has worked extremely hard under very challenging circumstances to repair the damage.”
The incident happened when torrential rain fell on already-saturated ground overnight on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
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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.
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