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Friday 27 Jan 2017

Railway on track to reopen on Monday after Lewisham derailment - but do check before you travel

Region & Route:

| Southern

Network Rail engineers are working round-the-clock to rebuild a stretch of railway near Lewisham damaged by a derailed freight train on Tuesday.

Good progress has been made and plans are in place to return services to normal for commuters on Monday morning. However, there is still a large amount of work to do over the weekend and passengers are being advised to check before they travel on Monday morning in case any changes to services need to be made.

More than 50 metres of railway was destroyed in the incident, along with part of a junction, and two wagons derailed, one of which was left on its side and needed to be craned back on to the rails. Around 30 tonnes of sand had to be removed by hand.

Network Rail’s chief operating officer Andy Derbyshire said: “It has been a difficult week for passengers on our railway and I’m very conscious of how patient everyone has been while we repair the line.

“Our teams have been working around the clock to rebuild the damaged section and we are on target to get commuter trains running as normal on Monday morning. However, it’s a big job and we are advising commuters to check before they travel on Monday.”

Southeastern is offering  Delay Repay compensation – at double the normal value – to passengers delayed by 30 minutes or more as a result of this incident.

David Statham, Managing Director at Southeastern, said: “We know the freight train derailment this week caused our passengers a great deal of inconvenience. We’ve done all we can to keep people moving, but the line closures heavily hit our services.

“Network Rail engineers have been working around the clock to get the freight train moved and the track fixed. Their hard work means the reopening of the railway is on target and this will allow us to run normal services again at the start of next week. I would to thank our passengers for their patience and ask them to please check before they travel on Monday morning.” 

Changes to Southeastern’s normal timetable due to the Lewisham freight train derailment will remain in place this weekend. Passengers should check before travelling at southeasternrailway.co.uk

NOTES

For the latest information, passengers are advised to check with National Rail Enquiries or Southeastern at southeasternrailway.co.uk or @Se_Railway on Twitter.

The incident occurred at around 5.30am on Tuesday between Hither Green and Lewisham stations.

The train consisted of a locomotive hauling 18 wagons filled with sand and was approximately 1,000m long. The rear two wagons only derailed and no people were on board the train other than the driver.