Morning train travel disrupted due to multiple problems

Monday, 16 January 2023 00:00

Salisbury train travellers have seen a morning of disruption thanks to flooding, points failures, and the land slip near Hook.

The line was flooded between Salisbury and Tisbury this morning; meaning trains were disrupted. Although the line has now reopened, South Western Railway (SWR) are expecting it to take all morning to go back to normal.

On top of this first flooding, a points failure between Salisbury and Romsey affected services travelling towards Southampton and Portsmouth. Again these issues have been resolved, but SWR expects disruption to last until around lunchtime.

This is then compounded by the landslip discovered yesterday near Hook. This has caused the two lines heading away from London to be closed whilst Network Rail deal with the issue.

The two lines that usually used to take trains towards London appear to remain open, but fewer trains can now travel over that section of line between Farnborough and Basingstoke.

It would appear some early trains from Salisbury went through to London Waterloo, but we are told to expect disruption until January 22nd and told to check before we travel.

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey

Network Rail Wessex route director Mark Killick said: “This is a huge landslip and will have a massive effect on customers. The main line to Basingstoke is the spine of our railway and there will be knock-on impacts across the route.

“I can only apologise for the scale of the disruption and please ask that customers check before they travel this week, not just on the affected section, but all the way up the line to London Waterloo, where many of the trains that would use this section of railway start and finish their journeys.

“We’re still assessing the damage and it’s difficult to put a detailed timescale in place, but we know it’s going to be at least a week.

“We will need to stabilise the embankment, essentially stopping it moving, and then rebuild the railway where it has slid away. We’ll keep everyone informed of our progress and I can only say thank you to everyone for their patience and apologise again for the disruption. Please look out for further updates from South Western Railway on the revised timetable, once this has been able to be confirmed.”