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Salisbury to Romsey blocked by a land slip.

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Matt Taylor

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A land slip has taken place between Dean and Laverstock Junction.

The up line is impassible although the down might be serviceable, the picture will be clearer tomorrow although Network Rail’s initial surveying suggests the repair could be several weeks.

In the meantime Southbound services terminate at Salisbury and northbound services terminate at Southampton, buses are in operation.
 
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trainmania100

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It's amazing these sorts of things are discovered in time before the first train of the day passes it pitch black and has an accident or something. We've had some absolutely terrible weather lately , im sittin here and can hear it pouring it down outside.
 

pompeyfan

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It's amazing these sorts of things are discovered in time before the first train of the day passes it pitch black and has an accident or something. We've had some absolutely terrible weather lately , im sittin here and can hear it pouring it down outside.

it was reported in the middle of the day by a passenger service train. When we think of Landslip we’ve been conditioned to think of the worst case scenario (off the track both lines blocked), this appears to be an embankment failure resulting in the the track buckling.
 

Wychwood93

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TRAKSY indicates that both up and down are blocked - 'BANK' and 'SLIP' on the TDs. See how it goes and how bad it is. With more adverse weather forecast this could make things a tad more 'fun' should Intermodals and XC have a need to be diverted.
 

swt_passenger

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TRAKSY indicates that both up and down are blocked - 'BANK' and 'SLIP' on the TDs. See how it goes and how bad it is. With more adverse weather forecast this could make things a tad more 'fun' should Intermodals and XC have a need to be diverted.
According to another recent thread they were hoping to divert XC this weekend at short notice, to do with Eastleigh. They’re going to need a plan C...
 

Closet2405

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In the meantime Southbound services terminate at Salisbury and northbound services terminate at Southampton, buses are in operation.

Could mean a fairly significant delay - normally Salisbury to Southampton takes a similar amount of time by road as by train, but the A36 is closed overnight with a lengthy diversion.
 

swt_passenger

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Just appeared on NRES:
“Engineers have been on site at the landslip and have confirmed there is significant damage to the embankment, with substantial repair work needed. It is expected that it will take up to 2 months to fully repair the damage however plans are being put in place to allow 1 line to open in the next few days which would enable a reduced train service to run.”
 

pompeyfan

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Just appeared on NRES:
“Engineers have been on site at the landslip and have confirmed there is significant damage to the embankment, with substantial repair work needed. It is expected that it will take up to 2 months to fully repair the damage however plans are being put in place to allow 1 line to open in the next few days which would enable a reduced train service to run.”

I understand the plan is for single line working with a block to loco traffic. I would take a punt at Romsey to Romsey shuttles (or buses) and the hourly GWR service potentially calling additionally at Dean and Dunbridge or buses there as well.
 

Kite159

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I understand the plan is for single line working with a block to loco traffic. I would take a punt at Romsey to Romsey shuttles (or buses) and the hourly GWR service potentially calling additionally at Dean and Dunbridge or buses there as well.

Romsey to Romsey journeys make sense, limits the requirement of buses for the local stations (not the best PR for the railway if someone for Redbridge needs to use a bus to reach Southampton when they see services whizzing past), as the 2 units can return to base via Basingstoke.

For buses, I would imagine fast buses and maybe a minibus for Dean & Mottifont, as some of the country lanes are probably not the best for full sized buses.

But knowing how passenger unfriendly SWR are, they will probably put on rail replacement buses for the entire route, all the while pushing any remaining passengers towards service buses never to return to the unreliable railway. Bluestar buses will be laughing with all the additional passengers!

According to another recent thread they were hoping to divert XC this weekend at short notice, to do with Eastleigh. They’re going to need a plan C...

I guess Plan C will be to divert the voyagers to Winchester using the existing buses.

Could mean a fairly significant delay - normally Salisbury to Southampton takes a similar amount of time by road as by train, but the A36 is closed overnight with a lengthy diversion.

The A36 around Southampton Road can be a bit traffic heavy at times
 
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Romsey

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The pinch point on the A36 is at the retail park centred on the Tesco store, a few hundred yards from the embankment slip. The flooding is upstream of where the River Bourne passes under the railway before it snakes through the shopping complex.

Back in the day, the villages bus route (36 or 236) between Romsey and Salisbury was worked by full size buses. An LS or MW was fine, an LH a bit too light and wide on the lanes, but I've seen RELL's and Leyland Nationals out there as well. At least one LN lost its roof pod under Lockerley Church railway bridge....

Blue Star. Salisbury Reds and Xela bus can cope this week, it's half term for Hampshire schools. Next week will be different and I doubt that Dunbridge or Dean will get much of a rail replacement service.
 

pompeyfan

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Looking at NRE, Great Western are calling additionally at Millbrook, Redbridge, Dean and Dunbridge, however SWR are not calling their Poole stoppers at St Denys or Swaythling. This surprises me as up Poole stoppers have 8 minutes dwell at Eastleigh to allow the fast to overtake, and the down train only has the XC North East services behind it every other hour with a 20 minute dwell at Southampton.

platform capacity at Romsey aside, I’m really surprised there’s not a Romsey - Southampton shuttle, but then I guess that could affect crew workings and cause issues trying to get them back to Salisbury for their PNB and next working.
 

Stigy

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There was already a 20 mph ESR and it was reported by a driver early this afternoon.
The ESR was put in place as a track defect was reported by a GWR driver a few weeks back (a similar thing as what was reported this time). NWR were working on it a couple of weeks ago but it was still in place. I believe the slip was at Milford curve where the ESR is in place?

I’ve heard there’s single line working in place now (using the up line?).
 

Parallel

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Looking at NRE, Great Western are calling additionally at Millbrook, Redbridge, Dean and Dunbridge, however SWR are not calling their Poole stoppers at St Denys or Swaythling.

Doesn’t look like they are now, additional calls on GWR services look to have been removed and Twitter is reporting rail replacement buses.

Anyone know why this was changed? Seems silly to have a train passing and not stopping in such circumstances.
 

swt_passenger

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Wonder if XC would divert via Guildford and Fareham to Southampton Central of RRBs?
But if it was possible at short notice, wouldn’t SWR divert that way too? Maybe they just don’t fit in on top of the existing SWR Portsmouth and SN “west coastway” services...

PS

NRES now updated, XC back on mainline on Saturday as far as Winchester now.
 
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387star

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Doesn’t look like they are now, additional calls on GWR services look to have been removed and Twitter is reporting rail replacement buses.

Anyone know why this was changed? Seems silly to have a train passing and not stopping in such circumstances.
Dunbridge is local door release only and more than 3 cars are banned whilst Milbrook is only accessed from the slows
 
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fgwrich

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So with GWR announcing it will be a replacement bus service from today and potentially onwards, with services operating Cardiff - Salisbury / Romsey - Portsmouth & Brighton, do they have enough units trapped south of Salisbury or will their have to be another rare movement of a GW unit down to the South Coast via Basingstoke?

(It’s happened once before with a FGW 158 tagging onto a SWT 158 - I think it worked the 22:15 to Portsmouth Harbour)
 

JN114

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So with GWR announcing it will be a replacement bus service from today and potentially onwards, with services operating Cardiff - Salisbury / Romsey - Portsmouth & Brighton, do they have enough units trapped south of Salisbury or will their have to be another rare movement of a GW unit down to the South Coast via Basingstoke?

(It’s happened once before with a FGW 158 tagging onto a SWT 158 - I think it worked the 22:15 to Portsmouth Harbour)

Consideration within that is that most Portsmouth services are now 165/166s, which while technically can couple mechanically to a 159, they’re not compatible electrically.
 

Dougal2345

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I have to say that closing five stations (Dean, Mottisfont & Dunbridge, Redbridge, Millbrook and Chandlers Ford) for over a month because a single line is blocked seems pretty poor.

A work colleague, whose kids commute to school from Redbridge to Romsey was unhappy about this yesterday, as he feels that replacement buses are too unreliable.
 

pompeyfan

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I would imagine that for maintenance swaps they’ll pilot work over single line a 3/4/5 unit mash up, or send them up via Reading with a SWR/GBRF/Freight driver provided between Eastleigh and Basingstoke to provide route knowledge.

it appears XC are running via Laverstock this weekend, with pathing taken into account. The only direct trains to London from Southampton however is Southern via Horsham. Everything else is bus Southampton to Winchester, which in itself is unusual as usually they’ll divert via Havant.
 

vikingdriver

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I would imagine that for maintenance swaps they’ll pilot work over single line a 3/4/5 unit mash up, or send them up via Reading with a SWR/GBRF/Freight driver provided between Eastleigh and Basingstoke to provide route knowledge.

it appears XC are running via Laverstock this weekend, with pathing taken into account. The only direct trains to London from Southampton however is Southern via Horsham. Everything else is bus Southampton to Winchester, which in itself is unusual as usually they’ll divert via Havant.

Are turbos even cleared from Basingstoke to Eastleigh?
 

Stigy

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Consideration within that is that most Portsmouth services are now 165/166s, which while technically can couple mechanically to a 159, they’re not compatible electrically.
They’re also not cleared for the mainline route between Salisbury and Basingstoke (not sure about Basingstoke to Reading, which would be an alternative.....a long winded one).
 

Stigy

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Are turbos even cleared from Basingstoke to Eastleigh?
They’re only cleared on the diversionary routes GWR runs on already (Chandler’s Ford to Eastleigh etc). An alternative, if they could get to Basingstoke would be to go to Reading and reverse there. Probably too much of a headache to consider to be honest.

Or just cancel them south of Bristol via Westbury and run them mainline from Temple Meads to Reading/Guildford. Again, probably too much hassle with them not being able to run due to clearing and staff available to conduct etc. Probably easier and cheaper just to cancel the lot of them :E
 

pompeyfan

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Are turbos even cleared from Basingstoke to Eastleigh?

possibly not, but as it’s a freight route and actively sees all sorts of weird and wonderful stock, including 800s I would imagine it’s rated at the most flexible. I wasn’t considering diverting the service that way, just a get out of jail maintenance swap
 

swt_passenger

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...it appears XC are running via Laverstock this weekend, with pathing taken into account. The only direct trains to London from Southampton however is Southern via Horsham. Everything else is bus Southampton to Winchester, which in itself is unusual as usually they’ll divert via Havant.
That was changed last night, according to NRES, XC are running to Winchester on Saturday. RTT is probably not yet updated. Indeed today’s NRES “service indicator” summary for GWR and SWR (at the time of this post) doesn’t mention this incident.
 
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