Hurst Green - East Grinstead Landslip 18/01/23

[WizCastro197]

A landslip between Hurst Green and East Grinstead on the Victoria bound line has occurred. No trains can run between these stations until 22nd of January.

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Due to a landslip between Hurst Green and East Grinstead, all lines are currently blocked. As a result, trains between London Victoria and East Grinstead will terminate / start at Hurst Green.

Lingfield, Dormans and East Grinstead will not be served by a train service.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day on Sunday 22 January.

It also appears there are limited bus services between Hurst Green/Oxted and East Grinstead.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

While not much good for those from East Grinstead a half hourly service was run to and from Hurst Green yesterday without too many delays. Car park season ticket acceptance at Three Bridges (I think just for EG).

As an area with a very high % of white collar employees I suspect a lot of WAH will be taking place.

 

[2192]

While not much good for those from East Grinstead a half hourly service was run to and from Hurst Green yesterday without too many delays. Car park season ticket acceptance at Three Bridges (I think just for EG).

As an area with a very high % of white collar employees I suspect a lot of WAH will be taking place.

WAH?

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Work at Home.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jan 2023 ==

I’m on a 12 coach train right now - 07:39 from Sanderstead. No problem getting a seat even though we had Purley Oaks and Whyteleafe passengers (overrunning engineering works). Just shows how much passenger numbers on primarily office based commuter lines have tailed off.

 

[RichJF]

Network Rail Kent & Sussex twitter thread on whole situation.

 

[Surreytraveller]

WAH?

WFH Work from home

 

[PGAT]

Landslips near East Grinstead is concerning. Weren’t there 5 landslips during lockdown?

 

[Murray J]

Landslips near East Grinstead is concerning. Weren’t there 5 landslips during lockdown?

I believe it was February but yes there were quite a few on that line around that period, line opened again in late-March. This new one is in a similar area as well, the ones in 2020 were all in the Lingfield/Dormans area but this new one is slightly further up, between Lingfield and Hurst Green.

 

[swt_passenger]

Landslips near East Grinstead is concerning. Weren’t there 5 landslips during lockdown?

If you follow the link in post#5, there’s a video on the Twitter page where the NR bloke refers to 25 serious incidents that affected train services in Kent/Sussex, over a 3 year period. 200 in total. What isn’t clear is whether or not that’s a new video, but it would imply more than 5 in a typical recent year…

 

[yorksrob]

The Weald is known for being made of clay.

 

[Murray J]

If you follow the link in post#5, there’s a video on the Twitter page where the NR bloke refers to 25 serious incidents that affected train services in Kent/Sussex, over a 3 year period. 200 in total. What isn’t clear is whether or not that’s a new video, but it would imply more than 5 in a typical recent year…

He means 5 on the Oxted line in 2020. There were more, if I remember correctly there were 2 minor slips in January that they fixed within a day or 2 but then about 5 or so hit the line in February. It's definitely a bit of an issue though, the Redhill-Tonbridge line was closed for a similar amount of time and the Horsham-Dorking line has also been affected by landslips in the past.

 

[WizCastro197]

Disruption and suspension of service is now predicted until 23rd of January, a day later than what was originally suggested.

Disruption is expected until at least Monday 23 January

Service Updates

Check for service cancellations, engineering works and other possible disruptions on your Southern route.

www.southernrailway.com

 

[RichJF]

Official Network Rail press release on Lingfield. Looks like initial work has begun to repair the landslip.

FYI I'm not a rail employee, just a very interested East Grinstead resident

 

[WizCastro197]

Official Network Rail press release on Lingfield. Looks like initial work has begun to repair the landslip.

FYI I'm not a rail employee, just a very interested East Grinstead resident

Are you a regular commuter on this line? May I ask, just out of curiosity if you are, what measures you've taken to attempt to avoid disruption to your journey?

 

[RichJF]

Are you a regular commuter on this line? May I ask, just out of curiosity if you are, what measures you've taken to attempt to avoid disruption to your journey?

Used to be. I got a new job back in August that no longer needs me to travel on the line for work. I still use it for leisure fairly regularly hence my continued interest.

During the 2020 landslide just before Covid (near Dormans) I used the 400 & 291 Metrobus bus from East Grinstead - Three Bridges & used the Brighton Main Line.
I was planning to visit London in the next couple of weeks, but I'll probably drive to somewhere on the Tonbridge line (Godstone/Edenbridge/Nutfield) if I do travel, depending on ticket acceptance routes.

 

[WizCastro197]

During the 2020 landslide just before Covid (near Dormans) I used the 400 & 291 Metrobus bus from East Grinstead - Three Bridges & used the Brighton Main Line.
I was planning to visit London in the next couple of weeks, but I'll probably drive to somewhere on the Tonbridge line (Godstone/Edenbridge/Nutfield) if I do travel, depending on ticket acceptance routes.

If you are going as far as Godstone to get to London, you might as well go all the way to Redhill, you will have to change there anyway, and there are more services than the 1tph down the Tonbridge Line.

 

[Bikeman78]

A landslip between Hurst Green and East Grinstead on the Victoria bound line has occurred. No trains can run between these stations until 22nd of January.

Service Updates

Check for service cancellations, engineering works and other possible disruptions on your Southern route.

www.southernrailway.com

It also appears there are limited bus services between Hurst Green/Oxted and East Grinstead.

I think there was a problem south of Three Bridges too. Everything down the Brighton main line was delayed, except the Arun Valley. Digital Doris was using the East Grinstead landslip as a catch all excuse for any delays. Something along the lines of "Please note that this train might be delayed after Gatwick Airport due to a landslide between Hurst Green and East Grinstead." This announement was even made for the Bognor train which ran bang on time throughout.

 

[WizCastro197]

Disruption and suspension of service is now expected until at least Wednesday 25th of January, now 4 days later than the original prediction.

Due to a landslip between Hurst Green and East Grinstead, all lines are currently blocked. As a result, trains between London Victoria and East Grinstead will terminate / start at Hurst Green.

Lingfield, Dormans and East Grinstead will not be served by a train service.

Disruption is expected until 05:00 on Wednesday 25

Service Updates

Check for service cancellations, engineering works and other possible disruptions on your Southern route.

www.southernrailway.com

 

[GodAtum]

I've had to take a bus to Three Bridges from East Grinstead, then get a train there.

 

[fandroid]

The Weald is known for being made of clay.

And sand, take your choice

 

[Craig1122]

One closure in the SE I've never understood was the line from East Grinstead to Three Bridges through Crawley Down. Relatively short, populated area and would have connected stations to EGR towards the coast. So seems unlikely to have lost money and as currently being proved a genuinely useful diversionary route. I'm guessing the fact it wasn't already electrified sealed it's fate and meant it wasn't possible to simply extend the EGR service.

 

[zwk500]

One closure in the SE I've never understood was the line from East Grinstead to Three Bridges through Crawley Down. Relatively short, populated area and would have connected stations to EGR towards the coast. So seems unlikely to have lost money and as currently being proved a genuinely useful diversionary route. I'm guessing the fact it wasn't already electrified sealed it's fate and meant it wasn't possible to simply extend the EGR service.

At the time it closed, Crawley Down was less than half the size it is today, the vast majority of it's development happening in the 70s when car was the only thing that mattered. It would also have been an operational pain as it used up paths on the Brighton Main Line, needed a junction on the fast lines at Three Bridges and also approached EG at 90 degrees to the existing station. Closure of the line through the town removed the maintenance liability on the tunnels and allowed the relief road to be built.
East Grinstead already had it's link to London that was faster and easier to operate, and given that the section from East Grinstead to Eridge and Groombridge was also unsustainable keeping the stub open didn't really make any sense at all.

 

[yorksrob]

At the time it closed, Crawley Down was less than half the size it is today, the vast majority of it's development happening in the 70s when car was the only thing that mattered. It would also have been an operational pain as it used up paths on the Brighton Main Line, needed a junction on the fast lines at Three Bridges and also approached EG at 90 degrees to the existing station. Closure of the line through the town removed the maintenance liability on the tunnels and allowed the relief road to be built.
East Grinstead already had it's link to London that was faster and easier to operate, and given that the section from East Grinstead to Eridge and Groombridge was also unsustainable keeping the stub open didn't really make any sense at all.

Ah well it's nice to give the Beeching accolytes their outings on the forum.

 

[zwk500]

Ah well it's nice to give the Beeching accolytes their outings on the forum.

There's a position between 'never close any line' and 'Beeching didn't go far enough'.

The poster asked why it closed, which is a factual answer. Perhaps in another timeline Grange Road station was kept open and served by a Stourbridge-type shuttle, or even the low level platforms were closed and all services used the High Level platforms allowing the East Grinstead services to be extensions, perhaps also with the East Grinstead-Forest Row-Groombridge-Tunbridge Wells West staying open.

If only they'd known in the 60s that the train would come back into it's own. Even without the benefit of hindsight, selling the station sites for development was a stupid decision chasing a quick buck.

 

[Craig1122]

At the time it closed, Crawley Down was less than half the size it is today, the vast majority of it's development happening in the 70s when car was the only thing that mattered. It would also have been an operational pain as it used up paths on the Brighton Main Line, needed a junction on the fast lines at Three Bridges and also approached EG at 90 degrees to the existing station. Closure of the line through the town removed the maintenance liability on the tunnels and allowed the relief road to be built.
East Grinstead already had it's link to London that was faster and easier to operate, and given that the section from East Grinstead to Eridge and Groombridge was also unsustainable keeping the stub open didn't really make any sense at all.

I'd forgotten it was of course a separate station at EGR. Surprised by the layout at Three Bridges as I would have expected it to come alongside rather than on to the main And as you say very different times when more retraction of the network rather than the reverse was likely expected.

While definitely not being in the 'reopen everything' club there have definitely been a few incidents over the last couple of years where the retention of some relatively small, and at the very least not heavily loss making, sections like this could have done much for diversionary resilience.

 

[zwk500]

I'd forgotten it was of course a separate station at EGR. Surprised by the layout at Three Bridges as I would have expected it to come alongside rather than on to the main And as you say very different times when more retraction of the network rather than the reverse was likely expected.

I would assume that some connection would be there, even if the branch train usually used a bay to the side.

While definitely not being in the 'reopen everything' club there have definitely been a few incidents over the last couple of years where the retention of some relatively small, and at the very least not heavily loss making, sections like this could have done much for diversionary resilience.

Diversionary resilience is a red herring. The line needs to at least make sense (not necessarily profit) on it's own. If embankments are at risk then remedial actions are cheaper than whole lines.

 

[Craig1122]

Diversionary resilience is a red herring. The line needs to at least make sense (not necessarily profit) on it's own. If embankments are at risk then remedial actions are cheaper than whole lines.

Absolutely agreed on it needing to make sense on it's own, hence my comment about Crawley Down and connections South. No point in maintaining miles of track just in case something goes wrong once every 10 years. It's just an example of the kind of place where a slightly different version of history would currently be making life much easier for those who need to travel from EGR.

 

[WizCastro197]

It appears parking acceptance for Three Bridges, has been revoked? Perhaps to secure spaces for those who actually regularly use Three Bridges?

 

[E27007]

The word is the landslip repair is behind by 24 hours and a service may not be restored until Tuesday morning

 

[Surreytraveller]

It appears parking acceptance for Three Bridges, has been revoked? Perhaps to secure spaces for those who actually regularly use Three Bridges?

Was there ever any acceptance at Three Bridges for parking? I thought it was always Haywards Heath