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ECML landslip near Edinburgh 31/01/2015

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Murph

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http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/90848.aspx

Incident created 31/01/2015 16:09

Last updated 31/01/2015 18:04

A landslip has occurred near Edinburgh which is causing disruption to journeys between Edinburgh and North Berwick / Dunbar / Newcraighall.

Trains are unable to run between Edinburgh and North Berwick / Dunbar / Newcraighall. Buses are running between these stations.

Alternative travel options:

CrossCountry, East Coast and ScotRail passengers may use each others services on any reasonable routes.

ScotRail passengers may use their train tickets on First local buses for the route shown on your ticket.

East Coast passengers may use Northern Rail between Newcastle and Carlisle and Virgin trains on any reasonable routes.

CrossCountry passengers may use Virgin Trains, First TransPennine Express and Northern Rail.

There is no firm estimate yet of how long disruption will last but it is likely to continue until at least 23:00.

You can follow this incident using the hashtag #EdinburghTrains

To check your journey, please use the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner
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I saw a London bound IC225 set standing at Abbeyhill for a good while at lunchtime-ish, so I think the disruption may have started earlier than the incident time above. That time is probably when it changed to a total closure, I guess.
 
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The earlier problem was probably that the 0730 Kings Cross-Edinburgh failed just east of Edinburgh. I was on the 0800 and we were 55 late arriving into Waverley. We sat in the Portobello area for at least half an hour (the rest of the delay was due to a level crossing problem near Almmouth). The guard told us they were waiting for the rescue loco to get to it but in the meantime the driver on the 0730 coaxed it back to life to get it into Edinburgh.
 
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Donny158

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I have just seen a picture of the land slip on national rail enquiries and it doesn't seem that bad. I'm taking a great interest in this issue as I'm booked on the first northbound eastcoast from doncaster in the morning and I'm hoping this will not be curtailed!! Do you think this will be all sorted out by the morning or will it possibly be a bigger job than my uneducated eye predicts and I will have a few problems tomorrow? Many thanks
 
najaB

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Donny158 said:
I have just seen a picture of the land slip on national rail enquiries and it doesn't seem that bad.
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I agree that on first look it doesn't look that serious, but it all depends on what has caused the soil to fail. If it's a culvert or similar it may require a complete block in order to replace/repair it.
 
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Donny158 said:
I have just seen a picture of the land slip on national rail enquiries and it doesn't seem that bad. I'm taking a great interest in this issue as I'm booked on the first northbound eastcoast from doncaster in the morning and I'm hoping this will not be curtailed!! Do you think this will be all sorted out by the morning or will it possibly be a bigger job than my uneducated eye predicts and I will have a few problems tomorrow? Many thanks
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I've seen major slips start with a very small movement and the next thing is a whole load of trackbed suddenly vanishes either down a big hole or down the embankment which results in a long term closure.
 
DaveNewcastle

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A North Berwick service is being allowed through tonight, in each direction (22.21 from N.Berwick and 23:11 from Waverley).
There is at least one East Coast set in Heaton Depot (Newcastle) tonight which, for a normal service tomorrow (Sunday), would be in Edinburgh.

I have no knowledge of any crew being displaced or any XC sets affected.
 
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Murph

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westcoaster said:
Reported as a sink hole
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najaB said:
That could be bad news...
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Yeah, there's a lot of abandoned mines in East Lothian, plenty of which are old enough to be basically lost, undocumented, or poorly documented. If it's old workings collapsing, it could take a while to fully assess the scale of the problem and stabilise the land. Some of the historic collapses in East Lothian have caused measurable localised earthquakes (the worst being about 2–3 on the Richter scale, if memory serves). Even if it's not mine workings, any type of sink hole is bad news until it's properly understood, which can take time.
 
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Donny158 said:
Should I be worried about my train tomorrow morning if it is a sink hole? ( I have zero knowledge how bad a sink hole can be!)
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I would check NRE and the East Coast website regularly and definitely before setting off tomorrow morning as if it is a sink hole (and to be honest even if it isn't) this could be quite bad.
 
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Donny158 said:
How bad? Lol.
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How long is a piece of string? Only those standing around in bright orange, scratching their heads, and shining torches down into the unexpected hole in the ground on this cold winter night will have any idea, and may well still be guessing.

Donny158 said:
Should I be worried about my train tomorrow morning if it is a sink hole? ( I have zero knowledge how bad a sink hole can be!)
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I'd be considering contingency plans, but there's still every possibility that they might get it fixed quickly overnight, if the hole is a minor one.
 
najaB

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Donny158 said:
How bad? Lol.

Should I be worried about my train tomorrow morning if it is a sink hole? ( I have zero knowledge how bad a sink hole can be!)

Many thanks
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This bad, or worse! It's really hard to say.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Murph said:
Yeah, there's a lot of abandoned mines in East Lothian, plenty of which are old enough to be basically lost, undocumented, or poorly documented.
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Wasn't the ECML re-routed in the 1990's to due to an abandoned mine or similar?
 
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Donny158

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Thanks for replies everyone......got my fingers crossed for this to be a relatively minor sink hole for the sake of everyone travelling on this route in the next few days!
Seeing the North Berwick trains running this evening has filled me with a little more optimism!!
 
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sprinterguy said:
More recently than that: A deviation had to be constructed west of Prestonpans station in 2003 due to mining subsidence.
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Yup, the Lothians pretty much have more holes than Swiss cheese, as a result of mining over the centuries.
 
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My next trip to Scotland is in 2 weeks so i'm hoping to hell that this doesn't cause long term disruption.
 
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The @NetworkRailSCOT twitter feed posted these pictures earlier on this evening.

Angle 1

Angle 2

Reporting specialist engineers on site and working overnight to fix the problem. It does look relatively minor though who knows what surveying is required to discover the cause of the sinkhole.
 
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darloscott

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Personally I would be amazed if they're back to full operations tomorrow. Are they running single line working past it?
A similar sinkhole appeared a few months back on the Sheffield super tram network, on the triangle near the railway station and that took about a week to fix?
 
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DaveNewcastle said:
A North Berwick service is being allowed through tonight, in each direction (22.21 from N.Berwick and 23:11 from Waverley).
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Katketty said:
I don't believe there is single line running currently with replacement buses in operation between Edinburgh and North Berwick.
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realtimetrains shows that on 31 January 2015 2Y09 2222 North Berwick - Edinburgh 2254 ran, arriving Edinburgh 28 minutes late, and 2Y12 2311 Edinburgh - North Berwick 2353 ran, departing Edinburgh 15 minutes late but arriving North Berwick only 6 minutes late.

Both trains used east-facing platform 4 at Edinburgh Waverley, so there was no diversion via the suburban circle and Haymarket, which would have avoided Craigentinny.
 
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