Engineers


have
been
abseiling
down
the
side
of
a
railway
cutting
in
Somerset,
after
a
landslip
blocked
the
line
between
Salisbury
and
Exeter.

Network
Rail
and
South
Western
Railway
are
warning
passengers
to
avoid
the
route
until
Monday
morning
as
a
result
of
the
slippage,
which
is
at
Crewkerne
Tunnel.

Network
Rail
completed
inspections
late
on
Monday
night,
and
yesterday
engineers
assessing
the
damage
used
ropes
to
abseil
down
the
cutting
and
start
removing
vegetation
before
beginning
to
excavate
the
debris.

Network
Rail
engineers
will
work
around
the
clock
over
the
next
few
days
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
using
chutes,
before
it’s
taken
away
on
an
engineering
train.
A
long
reach
excavator
will
also
be
brought
in
and
placed
on
top
of
the
tunnel
using
an
extra-long
arm
and
bucket
to
help
with
the
removal
of
the
debris.

To
make
matters
worse,
floods
west
of
Salisbury
have
also
made
providing
rail
replacement
buses
difficult.

Network
Rail
Wessex
route
director
Matt
Pocock
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
on
to
the
tracks.

‘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.’

South
Western
Railway’s
performance
and
planning
director
Steve
Tyler
added:
‘We
know
how
disruptive
this
is
for
customers
in
the
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.’