Network Rail has announced that they will be carrying out emergency repair work on the Uckfield Line this weekend, 29 February – 1 March 2020.
A section of the embankment, where the railway is raised above the level of the land, has started to slip following Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis.
Trains have been able to continue to run with speed restrictions but work is needed vitally needed to stop the line from being blocked completely.
Engineers will be building a steel wall over the weekend to hold the railway in place at the site just outside Edenbridge.
The line will reopen for business on Monday morning with further work continuing while trains run.
The advice to passengers is where possible to avoid travelling from stations on the route. Alternatively, passengers should make arrangements to travel from a station such as Tunbridge Wells, Haywards Heath or Lewes.
What did the officials say?
Network Rail‘s route director for Sussex, Shaun King, said:
“I’m really sorry for the short notice closure of this line, on top of all the other disruption people have endured this winter. We’ve had to take this action because there’s a serious risk this landslip could get much worse very quickly. Short notice work is never easy for passengers but in this case it will stop much worse disruption from happening in future.
“I’m enormously grateful to our lineside neighbours for letting us access the site. Without their help and understanding we wouldn’t be able to do this work and we’re working with them to minimise disruption.”
Southern Customer Services Director Chris Fowler said:
“We fully support Network Rail in their sensible action to contain this landslip, allowing us to keep our service running next week.
“We’ll share full travel advice this afternoon but, where possible, I would urge people to avoid travelling from stations between Uckfield and Edenbridge Town and consider alternatives such as Tunbridge Wells, Haywards Heath or Lewes.”
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Responses
This section of embankment has been looking “iffy” for some time, and shares it’s instability with other parts of the line. NR have a huge task with all the water damage to track beds, I hope the travelling public understand enough about the problems to take delays and cancellations in their stride. The plight of people flooded out of their homes should enable some sense of perspective.
Network Rail Orange rail workers will be kept very busy because of Storm Jorge (Hor-Hay) is expected to cause even more destruction with wind gusts exceeding up to 80mph in places.