Railway landslide: 'Huge' landslip cause 'major' train disruption

A large landslip on the London-bound train track used by trains travelling from the South West to London has caused a halt in train services.

The 10m high embankment near Hook slid out from underneath the railway leaving one track used for the westbound lanes hanging from mid-air.

The origin of this has been blamed on the very wet weather of the last recent days.

The landslide caused the Westbound lane to hang from mid-air (Image: Network Rail)

It means southbound and westbound trains from London will face disruption and "major changes" to train services for some time.

As a result, Network Rails has issued guidance for the public travelling through that route not to travel by train today.

Teams from the train operator Network Rail Wessex are still assessing the damage.

They will now be planning how to make use of the existing London-bound track and of the route via Haslemere.

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In a video posted on their social media, the tracks were seen hanging from mid-air.

⚠️VIDEO: A major landslip has damaged our main line, just outside of #Hook, in Hampshire.
📢@SW_Help customers are being advised not to travel tomorrow if their journey is to or from London to the south or west of Basingstoke.
Here's route director Mark on what's happened 👇 /1 pic.twitter.com/xGSKF0Kq12

— Network Rail Wessex (@NetworkRailWssx) January 15, 2023

In a statement Network Rail Wessex route director Mark Killick said:

“This is a huge landslip and will have a massive effect on customers. The main line to Basingstoke is the spine of our railway and there will be knock-on impacts across the route.

“I can only apologise for the scale of the disruption and please ask that customers check before they travel this week, not just on the affected section, but all the way up the line to London Waterloo, where many of the trains that would use this section of railway start and finish their journeys.

“We’re still assessing the damage and it’s difficult to put a detailed timescale in place, but we know it’s going to be at least a week.

“We will need to stabilise the embankment, essentially stopping it moving, and then rebuild the railway where it has slid away.

“We’ll keep everyone informed of our progress and I can only say thank you to everyone for their patience and apologise again for the disruption.

“Please look out for further updates from South Western Railway on the revised timetable, once this has been able to be confirmed.”