Following a landslide on Tuesday 18th February, those travelling between Romsey and Salisbury via train will face disturbances to their original routes in the coming weeks.
The landslide caused ‘significant damage to the embankment,’ according to South Western Railway. They have also said that ‘substantial repair work,’ which is estimated to take up to two months, must be undertaken before trains are able to run between these two areas.
Mark Edgerley, the manager for Romsey town centre, said:
I am not surprised this has happened because I have seen pictures of the location and it is going to be difficult to get to, as they will have to take one of the lines out and rebuild it. I know that route includes Dean and Dunbridge and there are a lot of school children who come into Romsey using those routes, so it will impact them, as well as a lot of people going into work from Southampton.
Network Rail Wessex tweeted following the discovery that the movement of the track might be as a result of the neighbouring field flooding.
A field next to the line has flooded, which may be the cause of the ground below the track moving. An earthworks engineer is set to carry out an examination. pic.twitter.com/7OPRjpALpo
— Network Rail Wessex (@NetworkRailWssx) February 18, 2020
A new update via the SWR Help Twitter page has said that all lines between Salisbury and Romsey are blocked (24/2).
Currently, SWR are running replacement buses to help passengers whose routes are affected.
In response to the event, SWR have released a statement:
We are very sorry for the disruption this landslip is causing, our colleagues at Network Rail are working hard to re-open the line. GWR are now able to run an hourly service between Salisbury and Southampton and we have replacement buses to keep passengers moving between other affected stations. Our train planners are working hard with their Network Rail counterparts to see if they can introduce a service between at Southampton, Eastleigh, Chandler’s Ford and Romsey in both directions.
