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Friday 21 Feb 2020

Passengers advised to check before they travel following landslip between Salisbury and Dean

Region & Route:

Southern: Wessex

Engineers continue to assess the damage caused by a landslip between Salisbury and Dean on Tuesday afternoon, 18 February.

Since the landslip, it has not been possible to run services.

Engineers are undertaking investigations at the site to find out what caused the landslip which happened on a railway embankment between Salisbury and Dean.

Initial inspections found that the embankment has slipped, leaving the track unsupported over approximately 20 metres. This has caused the track to dip, making it unsafe to run trains over the affected infrastructure.

Analysis of the landslip and plans for repair work have been complicated by the flooding of a field next to the line. This is the only access to the site to undertake repair works; due to the scale of the slip it cannot be fixed from the track

Passengers are advised to check with South Western Railway and Great Western Railway before they travel for details about replacement buses. Currently, there are replacement buses from Salisbury to Southampton.

Due to planned track maintenance on Sunday (23 Feb) between Romsey and Southampton, GWR will be running a replacement bus during the weekend from Salisbury via Romsey to Southampton/Fareham.

South Western Railway are hoping to run a limited service from Monday 24 February on the ‘Romsey loop’. One train an hour during the peak and one train every 2 hours in off-peak are expected to run in both directions from Romsey to Romsey via Eastleigh and Southampton.

Mark Killick, route director for Network Rail Wessex, said: “I am sorry we are not able to run trains between Salisbury and Southampton, but our priority is the safety of passengers and staff working on the trains.”

“Our engineering teams are assessing the damage to see what repairs are needed.

“We are unable to provide a date for reopening the line at this time; this will be shared once the full extent of the damage is understood and we are clear about the repair work required.”