A “huge” landslip is causing commuter chaos for a second day after it left a main train line hanging in mid-air, cancelling services into London.
No trains are running to London Waterloo from Exeter, Salisbury, Weymouth, Bournemouth, Southampton, Winchester or Portsmouth via Eastleigh on Tuesday, rail firm South Western has confirmed.
The 44-metre landslip happened on the embankment to the north east of Hook station in Hampshire, on the line from London to Basingstoke, following heavy rainfall over the weekend.
After the incident caused major disruption to services on Monday, South Western on Tuesday confirmed services to London Waterloo will terminate before reaching the capital.
Trains that usually run to Waterloo from Weymouth, Portsmouth Harbour, Exeter St Davids, and Salisbury will instead terminate at Basingstoke before running back to their station of origin.
Stopping services that usually run from Basingstoke to London Waterloo are cancelled.
Meanwhile an “extremely limited” shuttle will operate between Basingstoke and Woking, calling at Farnborough Main and Brookwood, connecting with other services from Woking to London Waterloo.
South Western warns that trains are unable to call at Hook, Winchfield or Fleet stations, and urges passengers: “Please do not attempt to travel to or from these stations by train as you will not be able to do so.”
Other suburban London services and trains operating in the south-west are expected to be busier than usual because of the incident.
Claire Mann, Managing Director of South Western Railway, said the firm is “deeply sorry for the significant disruption” felt by customers across the network on Monday.
“We are working hard to provide a service that our customers can rely upon and unfortunately, we will be unable to run through services from Exeter, Weymouth, or Portsmouth (via Eastleigh) to London Waterloo from Tuesday,” she said.
“An extremely limited number of services will be able to run between Basingstoke and Woking, but we are asking customers to avoid travelling through the affected area if they can.
“With the repairs at Hook set to take at least a week to complete it is likely that further service alternations will need to be made. We are sorry for the ongoing disruption caused by the landslip and will communicate any changes to our customers as soon as possible.”
Network Rail Wessex route director Mark Killick said on Monday: “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.”
A Network Rail spokesman explained that the embankment was made of a mixture of London clay and other local soils which had become saturated after days of heavy rain.
He said: “The slip happened when the soil gave way along a 44-metre section of 10m-high embankment, sliding out from underneath the tracks, in what engineers call a ‘rotational failure’.
“Network Rail and its suppliers are working on designs for the work needed to repair the railway, which will give a clearer idea of timescales.
“In addition, a train plan to provide journey options for customers on the route will be published as soon as possible.
