Tuesday 31 Dec 2013
Sussex’s railway recovering from Christmas storms
- Region & Route:
- | Southern
Network Rail’s routes through Sussex are recovering from damage caused by the recent storms.
Two landslips at Redhill and Coulsdon, caused by last week’s rain storms, have been repaired along with flood and fire damage to the track at West Croydon, and flooding near Balcombe.
However, a serious landslip at Ockley, between Horsham and Dorking, will take longer to rebuild.
Network Rail’s route managing director for Sussex, Tim Robinson, said: “Hundreds of our staff have been working in difficult conditions on the railway over Christmas to repair landslips, remove trees and also keep our planned engineering works running.
“The most difficult challenge now is the landslip at Ockley, where more than 40 metres of the embankment has collapsed. It is also in a very difficult location to access, so we estimate it will be at least a month before we are able to run a full service on that line.
“We are sorry for the disruption this causes to passengers and we appreciate how patient they have been this Christmas.”
In addition to the storm damage, Network Rail has continued with planned engineering work to build a new platform at Gatwick Airport, modernise signalling at Victoria station and to rebuild a major junction near Purley, which is due for completion on January 2.
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