The South Western Main Line returned to a full timetable on February 24, six weeks after a clay embankment collapsed at Hook in Hampshire (RAIL 975).
All four tracks between Basingstoke and Farnborough were returned to use. Following the dramatic landslip on January 15, only one line had initially been in operation.
On a normal weekday, South Western Railway runs 13 services an hour past the site of the landslip, with trains between London Waterloo and Basingstoke, Exeter, Salisbury, Portsmouth, Southampton and Weymouth.
That was reduced to just one shuttle train every 90 minutes between Basingstoke and Woking.
The collapse had affected both Basingstoke-bound tracks, leaving the London-bound lines undamaged. These were signalled in one direction only.
Network Rail’s Southern Region has recorded more than 200 earthworks failures in the last three years alone, 25 of which resulted in substantial line closures. NR said the increasing frequency of failures was due to climate change.
Read this article in full in RAIL issue 978 here
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