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Tuesday 20 Dec 2022

Work begins to clear landslip at Cruachan

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail is working with BEAR Scotland and Transport Scotland to re-connect communities along Loch Awe following a landslip at the Falls of Cruachan.

The railway line to Oban and A85 trunk road, east of the Falls of Cruachan, were blocked on Monday, December 19, when around 100 tonnes of debris slipped 80m down Ben Cruachan’s slopes.

Specialist engineers are on-site assessing the damage and putting plans in place to fully reopen the road – which is currently down to one lane – as quickly as possible.

With the slope above the track still saturated with water and potentially unstable, repairing and reopening the railway will be a complex process and timescales for those works are still being assessed.

The landslip, which occurred at 14:20 on Monday, was caused by a high volume of water flowing down the embankment from outside the railway boundary after a sudden rise in temperatures following last week’s prolonged freezing conditions.

Liam Sumpter, Network Rail Scotland Route Director, said: “A significant amount of debris fell onto the railway and road and our specialist teams have been working with BEAR Scotland and Transport Scotland to allow the A85 to partially reopen as quickly as possible.

“It will be several days before we can fully assess the extent of the damage to the railway and confirm timescales for making repairs to our infrastructure.

“We understand the difficulties this incident will cause for our customers and local residents and are working hard to put plans in place to reopen the line as soon as we can.”

Eddie Ross, BEAR Scotland’s Operating Company Representative, said: “We thank the local community and road users for their patience and assure them we’re doing everything we can alongside our partners in Police Scotland and Network Rail, to address this challenging situation as quickly and safely as we can.”

David Simpson, Service Delivery Director at ScotRail, said: “We are sorry to customers who have experienced disruption to their journey as a result of this incident and we are working with our colleagues at Network Rail Scotland to get services back into operation as soon as possible.

“We are currently unable to run services between Crianlarich and Oban, and due to the road also being closed, we have a very limited replacement bus service in operation.

“Our advice to customers is not to travel, as we cannot guarantee you will be able to complete your journey.”