Latest Rail News

23.11.17

Battered stretch of West Coast main line gets £4m repairs after landslide

Network Rail have completed £4m worth of work to stabilise embankments after a stretch of line between Watford and King’s Langley suffered from a major landslide last year.

Services on the West Coast main line into Euston will benefit from over 1km of rock netting installed over a 14-month period.

Although the area already had more than 500 rock anchors installed, the area still experienced a serious landslip in September last year.

The incident caused a train to derail and then created subsequent damage when it was clipped by a train travelling in the opposite direction – leaving both damaged.

Watford Tunnel approach completed work c.Network Rail

“Passengers will have more reliable journeys through the Watford area thanks to this investment,” commented Gavin Evans, scheme project manager at NR.

He explained that the biggest challenge for the project had been to work around the services while they were still operational without causing damage or slowing down construction.

Evans said: “A large proportion of the work took overnight and at weekends and the work we have done will protect the cutting for more than 60 years.”

In addition, Steve Helfet, London Midland’s head of West Coast services, spoke positively about the way the project had gone.

He commented: “This is a great example of one railway working together to make much needed repairs and improvements.

“The work was done with minimal impact to our customers on one of the busiest stretches of railway in Europe.”

Watford tunnel appraoch before the lanslide c.Network Rail

Services on the line will soon change operator, with a joint venture from Abellio, East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui set to take over from Govia next month.

The new TOC will be expecting a fresh start from West Coast main line services, with nearly £1bn of investment to be made in trains and infrastructure over the next nine years.

Last month, the new operator announced that the service would be renamed London Northwestern, as a tribute to the historic London and Northwestern Railway – once the largest in Britain.

Top image: Network Rail

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Comments

RW15   23/11/2017 at 16:05

I think there is an error in this article. “Services on the line will soon change operator, with a joint venture from Abellio, East Japan Railway Company and Mitsui set to take over from MTR next month.” MTR is not the incumbent Govia is, MTR dropped out of the bidding if I remember correctly.

Andrew Gwilt   24/11/2017 at 02:49

I think the landslide happened on the fast lines on the WCML which caused the closure of the WCML and trains were diverted to use the slow lines.

Not A Parody, Honest   24/11/2017 at 09:17

Well said Andrew

Andrew Gwilt   25/11/2017 at 00:20

@Not A Parody, Honest. Your welcome.

Allhailthegwont   28/11/2017 at 23:00

What about the recent repairs to the Marks Tey-Sudbury line can you keep us informed about that?

Andrew Gwilt   29/11/2017 at 02:03

Look ok. Marks Tey-Sudbury isn’t going to be electrified and Class 755’s will be replacing the Class 153’s and Class 156’s on that branch line. Stop talking about it ok. It’s beyond annoying and it’s getting far too old. End of.

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