Landslip at Crewkerne Tunnel - West of England Line closed.

[duffield]

National Rail is reporting that

The recent heavy rain and flooding is causing earth to move above the Crewkerne Tunnel and the line is closed to all services on safety grounds. Engineers will conduct a further daylight assessment of the site on Tuesday and the tunnel will definitely be closed until at least Thursday 7 December.

and also

With further rain forecast in the next 48 hours there is potential that no services will run until the weekend.

Incident: Pinhoe | National Rail

Major disruption between Salisbury and Exeter St Davids. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Opened thread for people to supply further details, pictures etc. (I couldn't see an existing thread for this).

 

[najaB]

Is it me, or has this year been particularly bad for structures and earthworks not staying where they're supposed to be?

 

[brad465]

Is this not the same section of line recently closed through planned engineering works to stabilise the area?

 

[Strathclyder]

Is it me, or has this year been particularly bad for structures and earthworks not staying where they're supposed to be?

Not to be a cynic or anything, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if next year is quite a bit worse in this regard. If anything, this year was a preview of things to come.

 

[stuu]

The ground down here in Somerset is absolutely saturated, with more rain warnings in place - there's water running in places I don't remember seeing it in the 40-odd years I have been here, so I'm not surprised at all

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Is this not the same section of line recently closed through planned engineering works to stabilise the area?

IIRC the recent planned closure was between Yeovil and Salisbury.

 

[brad465]

The ground down here in Somerset is absolutely saturated, with more rain warnings in place - there's water running in places I don't remember seeing it in the 40-odd years I have been here, so I'm not surprised at all

The line through Taunton was shut last night into this morning due to flooding, haven't seen exactly where but it was enough that both XC and GWR routes were not running.

IIRC the recent planned closure was between Yeovil and Salisbury.

That's the current closure, according to Network Rail Yeovil to Axminster was shut from the 6-10 November, with details as follows:

West of England line improvements - Network Rail

We’re investing to improve journeys on the West of England line, between Axminster and Salisbury station. Over the next year our teams will be working hard during multiple mid-week and weekday closures to boost reliability and performance along the line. What work is taking place? Over a series...

www.networkrail.co.uk

In November and December 2023, there will be a two-part line closure on the West of England line between Axminster and Salisbury.

The first closure is for 5-days from Monday 6 to Friday 10 November 2023, with buses replacing SWR trains from Yeovil Junction to Axminster station.

Our engineers will be stabilising earthworks at Crewkerne Tunnel by Crewkerne station. Taking advantage of the closure our teams will also:

• Remove wet beds, waterlogged patches of ballast that cause rough rides for trains, through Crewkerne level crossing
• Improving drainage along the track
• Upgrade Axe Gates and Broom level crossings, between Axminster and Crewkerne stations
• Complete routine maintenance of Weycroft River Bridge outside Axminster

The second closure is for 16-days from Saturday 25 November to Sunday 10 December 2023, with buses replacing SWR trains from Salisbury to Yeovil Junction.

During the closure our teams will be:

• Replacing track from Tisbury to Sherborne
• Clearing dangerous vegetation between Tisbury and Sherborne
• Completing level crossing maintenance between Tisbury and Templecombe
• Installing cabling between Tisbury and Sherborne

 

[baza585]

National Rail is reporting that


and also

Incident: Pinhoe | National Rail

Major disruption between Salisbury and Exeter St Davids. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Opened thread for people to supply further details, pictures etc. (I couldn't see an existing thread for this).

Deep joy. Lots of 158/9 stock sitting idle in Salisbury sidings as I chug past on a GWR Pompey-Cardiff short form 3 car unit which would have been wedged even before that additional pax trying to get to/from the West Country.

If railways were run sensibly then stock would be loaned to GWR to strengthen the Pompey-Cardiff service during the closure.

Not holding my breath though........

 

[najaB]

If railways were run sensibly then stock would be loaned to GWR to strengthen the Pompey-Cardiff service during the closure.

Do GWRs drivers who sign the route also drive the type?

 

[YorkRailFan]

Landslip at Crewkerne closes railway between Salisbury and Exeter until Monday
Region & Route: Southern | Southern: Wessex
South Western Railway (SWR) services between Salisbury and Exeter will remain unable to run until Monday morning while the railway is closed to allow Network Rail engineers to repair a landslip at Crewkerne Tunnel.

Network Rail and SWR are urging customers not to attempt to travel between Salisbury and Exeter until Monday 11 December.

Network Rail completed inspections late last night and early this morning to assess the situation before engineers began work using ropes to abseil down the cutting and start removing vegetation before beginning excavating debris.

Over the coming days, Network Rail’s team of engineers will work around the clock to excavate around 100 tonnes of clay, soil and vegetation from around the tunnel entrance to help stabilise the cutting.

Engineers are initially excavating by hand, lowering the debris to the track via chutes before its transported away on an engineering train. A long reach excavator will also be brought in and situated on top of the tunnel using an extra-long arm and bucket to help with the removal of the debris.

As a result, SWR is unable to run services between Salisbury and Exeter St David’s and is urging customers not to attempt to travel on this route, particularly as severe flooding continues to impact the planned rail replacement bus services.

Matt Pocock, Network Rail Wessex route director, said: “I would like to say how sorry we are for the disruption passengers are experiencing following a landslip at Crewkerne tunnel.

“We’ve experienced over 90mm of sustained heavy rain over the past 48 hours and this has resulted in movement in the earth on the cutting above the tunnel entrance which, if action isn’t taken, could spill over onto the tracks and risk the safety of passenger services.

“Our team of engineers are already working extremely hard day and night and in all conditions to remove over 100 tonnes of debris and will be doing all they can so we can reopen the line and passengers can resume travelling on Monday morning.”

Steve Tyler, South Western Railway’s Performance and Planning Director, said: “We’re really sorry that the emergency closure of Crewkerne tunnel means we won’t be able to serve stations between Salisbury and Exeter St David’s until Monday.

“We know how disruptive this is for customers in run up to Christmas, so our teams are examining potential ways to run an extremely limited service between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction via Westbury in the coming days. Please check our website for the latest updates.”

Notes to Editors
Following over 90mm of heavy rain and resulting flooding yesterday (Monday 4 December), tiny monitoring sensors installed into the ground detected movement of the earth on the cutting above the entrance to Crewkerne Tunnel on the line between Crewkerne and Yeovil Junction stations.

To keep customers safe and enable services to keep running through this area, Network Rail introduced a 20mph speed restriction at midday. However, further heavy rain resulted in flooding inside the tunnel and with movement of debris continuing on the cutting, so a decision was made to close the line at 1800 for safety reasons.

ASLEF strike action takes place on the SWR network on Wednesday 6 December, with an extremely limited service running on a small number of lines, and no services running all day west of Salisbury.

Ongoing engineering work continues to close the line between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction until Monday.

Landslip at Crewkerne closes railway between Salisbury and Exeter until Monday

South Western Railway (SWR) services between Salisbury and Exeter will remain unable to run until Monday morning while the railway is closed to allow Network Rail engineers to repair a landslip at Crewkerne Tunnel.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

No rail replacement buses are being offered or ticket acceptance with GWR, going to be a fun week for SWR passengers in the area.

 

[Benjwri]

Do GWRs drivers who sign the route also drive the type?

GWR operates their own Class 158/9s on the route

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Not to be a cynic or anything, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if next year is quite a bit worse in this regard. If anything, this year was a preview of things to come.

Not just this year, such problems have been occurring on a gradually increasing frequency for a while now. The combination of climate change with an infrastructure that's typically at least 170 years old and not always having received the best maintenance is bound to lead to more such problems going forward. It's almost as though some of the network needs replacing with some new build alternative routes...

 

[Somewhere]

GWR operates their own Class 158/9s on the route

There's probably been modifications to the stock that GWR don't sign

 

[Train Maniac]

Deep joy. Lots of 158/9 stock sitting idle in Salisbury sidings as I chug past on a GWR Pompey-Cardiff short form 3 car unit which would have been wedged even before that additional pax trying to get to/from the West Country.

If railways were run sensibly then stock would be loaned to GWR to strengthen the Pompey-Cardiff service during the closure.

Not holding my breath though........

Not to mention the extra passengers going to and from Bath Christmas Market. Was absolutely rammed solid this past Saturday evening....

 

[randyrippley]

Only six miles from Beaminster tunnel, the road one that collapsed back in 2012
Presumably similar geology?

 

[Benjwri]

Paul Clifton reporting drainage was blocked which could’ve lead to the flooding etc.

West of England Line Crewkerne tunnel flooding and landslip: I’m told no trains until at least Monday next week. I’m also told drainage channels by the tunnel entrance had become blocked, hence water flowing where it shouldn’t

Also interesting to note the line was closed less than a month ago to ‘stabilise earthworks at Crewkerne Tunnel’, and it was claimed engineers were ‘improving drainage along the track’. Does this not suggest the money has been spent here, but on a bad job?

 

[DerekC]

Only six miles from Beaminster tunnel, the road one that collapsed back in 2012
Presumably similar geology?

I'm not a geologist - but I do know that West Dorset and South Somerset is a very complicated area. A quick look at the geological map suggests that the underlying rock are different kinds of sandstone - Bridport Sands at Crewkerne and Upper Greensand at Horn Hill near Beaminster. However clay overlay seems to be a common factor.

I have a bit of personal experience of digging holes not far away. Where we were digging it was a messy mix of very heavy clay with lumps of sandstone - but it also changes a lot within the space of a few yards. The clay is rock hard in the summer and very soggy and plastic in the winter - a good recipe for landslips, I guess.

 

[DelW]

Also interesting to note the line was closed less than a month ago to ‘stabilise earthworks at Crewkerne Tunnel’, and it was claimed engineers were ‘improving drainage along the track’. Does this not suggest the money has been spent here, but on a bad job?

There's a picture within this Rail Advent article:

Railway between Salisbury and Exeter closed til Monday due to landslip at Crewkerne

South Western Railway is not able to operate services between Salisbury and Exeter until Monday the 11th of December

www.railadvent.co.uk

which suggest to me that previous work was to the approach cutting, while the current slip is above the tunnel portal.
(The text largely repeats what has already been covered in this thread. It also includes an entirely irrelevant picture of a class 455 which has obviously never been anywhere near Crewkerne tunnel.)

 

[randyrippley]

The Bridport sands (and nearby Yeovil sands for that matter) is very soft compacted but friable sand, not even really stone.
The whole area is full of "hollow way" roads which have worn and washed away, in some places down to 30-40 feet. Hardly stable at the best of times, but highly vulnerable to water flow

 

[swt_passenger]

There's probably been modifications to the stock that GWR don't sign

There are, but a previous discussion reported that the differences are minor and covered in a briefing sheet. They have borrowed SWT/SWR units before without any obvious problems. When they had daily hire-ins for a few years they didn’t get the same unit every day, so presumably they used them in the usual SWT/SWR state, eg with leading door lock out operational.

 

[Class172]

No rail replacement buses are being offered or ticket acceptance with GWR, going to be a fun week for SWR passengers in the area.

The lack of which is going to be a major inconvenience to a lot of SWR passengers. The least they could do in my opinion would be to arrange acceptance Salisbury-Westbury-Exeter with GWR, but ideally all the way from Paddington.

 

[embers25]

Why can't SWR run to and from Yeovil Junction at least where the depot is and actually even as far as Crewkerne? Also, given they have trains parked in St Davids, why can't they run some sort of Exeter to Axminster train too (I get fueling may be an issue but I thought they could use GWR Exeter Depot fueling now? As for no ticket acceptance, that is the icing on the cake. Sums up everything wrong with SWR in one issue.

 

[dgl]

I suppose if you could you'd run as far as Crewkerne, as in a lot of ways that's better than Yeovil Junction as you are at least not out in the middle of nowhere, plus any bus would have to go through Crewkerne town centre anyway to get to Axminster. The single platform/line is a disadvantage, but for a shuttle it shouldn't cause too many issues.
Naturally I assume the signalling allows for a turn around at Crewkerne.

 

[embers25]

It does and happens with engineering works regularly.

 

[DerekC]

I suppose if you could you'd run as far as Crewkerne, as in a lot of ways that's better than Yeovil Junction as you are at least not out in the middle of nowhere, plus any bus would have to go through Crewkerne town centre anyway to get to Axminster. The single platform/line is a disadvantage, but for a shuttle it shouldn't cause too many issues.
Naturally I assume the signalling allows for a turn around at Crewkerne.

So why not? A two-hourly from Waterloo to Crewkerne (even with a change of trains at Salisbury) and a two-hourly shuttle from Exeter to Axminster with rail replacement bus in between would at least provide a service. In the brave new DfT micro-managed world, who decides on this kind of thing?

 

[Class172]

Why can't SWR run to and from Yeovil Junction at least where the depot is and actually even as far as Crewkerne? Also, given they have trains parked in St Davids, why can't they run some sort of Exeter to Axminster train too (I get fueling may be an issue but I thought they could use GWR Exeter Depot fueling now? As for no ticket acceptance, that is the icing on the cake. Sums up everything wrong with SWR in one issue.

Would SWR have enough crew based at St Davids to man an Exeter-Axminster service—my suspicion, though happy to be corrected, is that there isn't? I don't think GWR could pick up the slack either as the pool of drivers they have available who sign via Axminster is pretty limited as far as I'm aware, in addition to the overtime ban that is in force this week.

 

[DerekC]

Would SWR have enough crew based at St Davids to man an Exeter-Axminster service—my suspicion, though happy to be corrected, is that there isn't? I don't think GWR could pick up the slack either as the pool of drivers they have available who sign via Axminster is pretty limited as far as I'm aware, in addition to the overtime ban that is in force this week.

The overtime ban won't help, of course. I am sure our Planning friends could tell us how many units and crews for a 2-hourly shuttle covering a reasonable part of the day. I have long ago learned (as an engineer) not to make simplistic assumptions in that area!

I have a bad feeling about this one - it took months to fix the Beaminster road tunnel

 

[Martin_1981]

Why can't SWR run to and from Yeovil Junction at least where the depot is and actually even as far as Crewkerne? Also, given they have trains parked in St Davids, why can't they run some sort of Exeter to Axminster train too (I get fueling may be an issue but I thought they could use GWR Exeter Depot fueling now? As for no ticket acceptance, that is the icing on the cake. Sums up everything wrong with SWR in one issue.

I've seen SWR 159s in the GWR Exeter fuelling depot.

I find it utterly ridiculous that no rail replacement buses are proposed which they usually are during times of disruption. Usually there would be an Exeter to Yeovil bus calling at Exeter Central, Honiton, Axminster and Crewkerne and a separate Exeter to Axminster service calling at Exeter Central, Pinhoe, Cranbrook, Whimple, Fenton and Honiton. Why the hell are SWR not arranging this if the line is closed until at least Monday. Given the volume of people who use this line I think it's an absolute joke.

 

[embers25]

The crews are almost all Yeovil Junction based now i believe which makes crewing an Exeter to Axminster shuttle easier and given the other engineering works, they were running an exeter to yeovil shuttle before the closure. I really fail to understand why Salisbury to Yeovil via Westbury is cancelled as there is no issue at all on that bit so that's just SWR screwing everyone. The fact there is no ticket acceptance on GWR (also a first company) or stagecoach buses is ridiculous but typical SWR

 

[Meerkat]

I've seen SWR 159s in the GWR Exeter fuelling depot.

I find it utterly ridiculous that no rail replacement buses are proposed which they usually are during times of disruption. Usually there would be an Exeter to Yeovil bus calling at Exeter Central, Honiton, Axminster and Crewkerne and a separate Exeter to Axminster service calling at Exeter Central, Pinhoe, Cranbrook, Whimple, Fenton and Honiton. Why the hell are SWR not arranging this if the line is closed until at least Monday. Given the volume of people who use this line I think it's an absolute joke.

The link earlier said there were no buses due to flooding. Are there still no buses?