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Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
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5 Feb, 4 tweets, 3 min read
We’re really sorry but we’re going to have to keep the railway between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells closed until Saturday 20 February, following a landslip near High Brooms.

You can find the full announcement here: networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/tunbridge…
Work was already planned for this area shown below, where two previous landslips had occurred.

This latest slip means it makes sense for our passengers and our neighbours to fix all 120 metres of the railway in one go, to make sure it is fit for the future.
Although the line will reopen on 20 February, work will need to continue on the site for some time so we will make sure our neighbours are kept informed and involved.

We will post further progress updates, pictures and videos here as we get them.
Finally, there's more about landslips, the threats to the railway from a changing climate and what we're doing to prepare here: networkrail.co.uk/running-the-ra…

Please continue to check before you travel by following @Se_Railway and via nationalrail.co.uk for service information.

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Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
5 Feb
As a result of movement in the track in the #Salfords area, we have a speed restriction in place affecting @Southern and @TLRailUK trains. The good news is the work can happen safely with the railway open and it will involve counterfort drains, anchor rods and bags of ballast /1
The counterfort drains are dug by excavators and lined and filled with gravel, essentially like big French drains so water can drain away quicker /2
Then the anchors are big steel rods which are inserted into the ground, but they have a head on them which hooks into the ground and then these are attached to the sheet pile wall to give even more stability /3
Read 5 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
21 Jan
🌧️ As you might expect given the horrendous conditions overnight, we have more news from #Newington landslip and it's not good. We're not going to manage to open the line today at all. Here's a statement from our director, Fiona, and a short thread (on top of the last one...).
We've removed 280 tons of spoil already, with more being loaded into a train all the time. Bags of ballast (stones) are being laid in a wall to protect the railway. However, the soil - a silty clay - is still moving. /2
It's a deep cutting, cut 13m down into the hills around #Newington , and the slip site is around 30m long, so it's not a small job to keep on top of. For us to be able to run trains safely we need to know that the soil is no longer moving and we're not there yet. /3
Read 6 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
20 Jan
🌧Unfortunately, our hopes of reopening the #Newington landslip early on Thursday have gone with the wind that's battering our team there. The best we can hope for is around 0900 and @Se_Railway + @TLRailUK are putting plans in place for passengers in the early morning. /1
This pic from the train collecting the spoil shows what our temporary solution to the slip looks like, and although we're confident we can get this done early tomorrow we aren't confident enough that it will totally stop the earth movement. /2
So we're going to monitor the site for a bit before trains run and open when we are sure it is safe. At the moment that's around 0900 but we would strongly advise passengers to check before they travel, as the weather is awful and the spoil at the site is saturated. /3
Read 5 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
20 Jan
🌧️ We're sorry to say that despite working through the night, the landslip at #Newington has defeated our best efforts and we won't be able to get the railway open again today. The rain has kept up and continues to soak the spoil, which slips as fast as we can cart it away. /1
We're bringing more equipment to site now,on top of the digger you can see here working overnight, to reach further back into the slip and remove the soil that keeps sliding towards the railway. /2
The good news is this is what geotechnical engineers call a "transitional failure" which is effectively the failed top layer of soil surfing downhill on the lower layer. That means once we cart the spoil away and put a row of ballast bags in place to protect the line... /3
Read 5 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
19 Jan
⚠️ You may have seen our friends @Se_Railway and @TLRailUK explaining that there won't be trains between #Gillingham and #Sittingbourne tonight from 2100 (9pm) because of a landslip. Well, here's what it looked like from track level this morning.... /1
... the slip is in a cutting just outside #Newington station and was discovered when trees turned up closer to the track than expected. Here's the top end, and you can see the top layer of soil had given way and slid down towards the railway. /2
We kept trains running today at 20mph as the slip was in no danger of continuing onto the railway, but we're coming in early tonight to shore it up. That's why there's rail replacement buses and why you'll need to check before you travel this evening. /3
Read 5 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
8 Jan
⚠️ We're really sorry for the disruption around #WaterlooEast and @NetworkRailCHX this morning, affecting @Se_Railway passengers. In the early hours of this morning we found a broken rail - a dramatic one as you can see - on one of 4 tracks in the area. /1
Here's the line we've blocked, through platform B. Our signallers are routing trains through the open lines and others are being diverted to Victoria this morning while we fix the problem... /2
We've plated over the break on each side (this picture is before we did the job!) which will allow trains to run over the break slowly. We'll come back in after hours to weld a new section of rail in and the line should open soon. Many thanks for your patience this morning.
Read 4 tweets

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