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Ockley doing its thing again! Hope they can fix it by tomorrow. This is in addition to a landslip at Holmwood last weekend, where the part-collapsed retaining wall for the former up siding appears to have subsided some more, necessitating the placement of ballast bags (and a strong presence of orange this week).
Funnily enough the same happened in 2013. A major landslip at Ockley disrupted diverted trains. In that case the diverted service ran to Dorking and then buses took passengers onwards to Three Bridges. I'm not sure if Southern have more or less notice this time. The Three Bridges stops have been removed from the diverts which may make it easier.
Picture of landslip near Ockley.
A landslip has been reported in the Ockley area this evening, which will impact the train service running between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria tomorrow, Saturday 24 January. We're very sorry for this, and we'd like to thank you for your patience.
The information from the site of the landslip has confirmed that extensive repairs are needed. Until these are done, it will only be possible to run trains through the area on one line, reducing the service to one train per hour in each direction.
Looks like Single Line Working over the Up Main between Horsham and Dorking.
OpenTrainTimes shows as of 0100 Alt Text: A screenshot of the OpenTrainTimes website indicating that the Down Main is blocked between Dorking and Warnham.
Mod Note: Edited to include a screenshot of OpenTrainTimes with the dark reader browser extenstion switched off.
Ockley doing its thing again! Hope they can fix it by tomorrow. This is in addition to a landslip at Holmwood last weekend, where the part-collapsed retaining wall for the former up siding appears to have subsided some more, necessitating the placement of ballast bags (and a strong presence of orange this week).
Funnily enough the same happened in 2013. A major landslip at Ockley disrupted diverted trains. In that case the diverted service ran to Dorking and then buses took passengers onwards to Three Bridges. I'm not sure if Southern have more or less notice this time. The Three Bridges stops have been removed from the diverts which may make it easier. View attachment 196520
Picture of landslip near Ockley.
In 2013 I believe the landslip occurred on Christmas Eve, and the diverts only started after Christmas (I would presume on the 27th). So Southern would have had a couple of days to organise things, albeit those were Christmas Day and Boxing Day so not ideal! Still, better than 12 hours notice.
Diverted trains are running hourly today, but they're losing time due to the single line working - already the first few trains have lost 20-30 minutes each. This is going to be a long weekend...!
Looks unsignalled on the Up Line so Single Line Working Regulations seem to apply here. That would be slow in the southbound direction reducing capacity severely I'm surprised its even an hourly service.
Presumably the staff change was delayed by a late inbound service. I noticed yesterday lots of trains losing well over 30 mins at Horsham before heading to Dorking, even though that direction doesn't require going wrong line. An OBS is needed on stopping services between Dorking and Horsham – is that true for diverts too?
No news on whether the landslip will affect Mole valley services tomorrow. From Network Rail twitter here is a picture of the slip from yesterday:
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The Southern app has now been updated to say there will be no trains between Horsham and Dorking until at least the end of the day on Friday 30th. However, they will continue to run the hourly Gatwick diverts today.
From Monday there will be a replacement bus serving Horsham, Warnham, Holmwood, and Dorking (not Ockley due to unrelated local road closures - instead they get a minibus shuttle to Dorking). The 1 tph Dorking to Victoria will still run, but the other 1 tph Horsham-Victoria will either not run or start at Dorking. That could be very disruptive if the likes of Carshalton, Hackbridge, etc end up with 1 tph service to Victoria at times!
It may be worth moving these posts and further updates to a new Ockley Landslip thread once the diversions are over? I'll leave it to the mods to decide.
I noted this on the BBC News web site. Poor PR from the Southern spokesman to say closing the line is "not a decision we have taken lightly" - there was obviously no choice about it!
Services between Horsham and Dorking will be replaced by buses until "at leat Friday".
www.bbc.co.uk
Network Rail says buses will replace trains between Horsham and Dorking, and trains will be running from both stations.
No trains will serve Holmwood, Ockley or Warnham until the line has re-opened.
Southern, who run services on the line, say the landslip is "substantial".
The operator said the affected track has "severely moved" as the earth around it has shifted.
The closure will allow engineers to stablilise the embankment and fix the broken rail.
Speaking on behalf of Network Rail, Lucy McAuliffe, route director, said: "We're really sorry for the disruption this week and the short notice of this closure.
"We know closing the line between Dorking and Horsham is going to be frustrating for passengers, and it's certainly not a decision we've taken lightly.
"Safety for passengers and railway staff has to come first, and we need to act quickly to make sure that the condition of the embankment does not deteriorate further."
Passengers have been told to check the Southern or National Rail websites for travel advice and ticket acceptance.
The Mid Sussex has always slipped due to underlying Clay and Sand layers- similar to the BML around Earlswood. Back in the day when the Peak Hour Bognor buffets avoided the BML they still went via Dorking and Sutton the Up line was shut for weeks just before Ockley and Up trains reversed back over the crossover at Warnham and then crossed back at Holmwood. The operating was very slick and delays settled to about 20mins as far as I remember. Trains then treaded through Dorking using the eastern most Plaforms at Dorking and Epsom ( where the peaks did not stop) . Since then I think the line has slipped twice on that section and down the line there have been slips at Clay Lane and near Barnsgreen.
The Mid Sussex has always slipped due to underlying Clay and Sand layers- similar to the BML around Earlswood. Back in the day when the Peak Hour Bognor buffets avoided the BML they still went via Dorking and Sutton the Up line was shut for weeks just before Ockley and Up trains reversed back over the crossover at Warnham and then crossed back at Holmwood. The operating was very slick and delays settled to about 20mins as far as I remember. Trains then treaded through Dorking using the eastern most Plaforms at Dorking and Epsom ( where the peaks did not stop) . Since then I think the line has slipped twice on that section and down the line there have been slips at Clay Lane and near Barnsgreen.
BBC Surrey are reporting* that the work is "on target" to reopen the line on 16th February. They've installed steel piles to rebuild and strengthen the embankment. Such piles can be seen at many locations along the line, showing how prone it is to earthworks issues. I've only lived on the line for 2.5 years, so this is my first major closure, but I have done some digging and found at least 6 major closures in the last 12 years.
The first few days of replacement buses were plagued by issues in my experience. Several buses not turning up at all, one which didn't know where Holmwood station was and let people off on the side of the A24 dual carriageway. Several local buses did not know about ticket acceptance, despite it being advertised by Southern. The replacement buses were not timed well and made a poor connection with the xx:17 at Dorking for Victoria.
This week things have been much better. The Dorking-bound replacement buses have been re-timed to connect nicely with the xx:43 (now xx:45) off Dorking. Interestingly 1I48 17:25 Victoria to Horsham peak extra, which was running via East Croydon at first, is now cancelled. Without the peak extra the 17:11 and 17:41 are absolutely rammed up to Sutton, showing the need for such services on the Northern end of the line. Fortunately, there is a bus replacement for that peak service which connects nicely with the 17:11 off Victoria.
We are now in the curious situation where no trains are scheduled to use platform 1 at Dorking. Initially, inbound trains were shunting from platform 3 to platform 1, but now the timings have been tweaked this is not necessary. I think this highlights the need for a facing crossover from the down Portsmouth to platform 1 between Boxhill and Dorking to allow down trains to use platform 1. This would also help when 1I48 misses its path and cannot pass Dorking due to platforms 2 & 3 being blocked. Bottom of a long list, of course.
*Full article copied below:
Works to repair a railway line after a landslip which has disrupted trains for a week are "on target" to be completed by 16 February, Network Rail says.
A landslip south of Ockley in Surrey has closed the line between Dorking and Horsham, West Sussex, since 23 January, with works ongoing to repair the land after parts of the track were left hanging off the edge of the slip.
A spokesperson for Network Rail, which is carrying out the repairs, said on Sunday that "speedy progress" meant the train line was still due to be re-opened in two weeks.
No trains are serving Ockley, Holmwood, or Warnham during the closure.
In a statement on X, Network Rail Kent and Sussex said: "In just one day, our team repairing the Ockley landslip undertook the installation of 47 steel piles as part of the work to rebuild and strengthen the embankment.
"Speedy progress has enabled the team to move to the next stage of the work, with earthworks now underway meaning that the project in on target to hand back the line between Dorking and Horsham to Southern Rail customers on Monday, 16 February."
Network Rail originally said the line would be closed until 31 January, but later extended the closure for a further two weeks.
An hourly train service will continue to run between Dorking and London Victoria, and services continue to run from Horsham to London Bridge and London Victoria, via Gatwick Airport.
BBC Surrey are reporting* that the work is "on target" to reopen the line on 16th February. They've installed steel piles to rebuild and strengthen the embankment. Such piles can be seen at many locations along the line, showing how prone it is to earthworks issues. I've only lived on the line for 2.5 years, so this is my first major closure, but I have done some digging and found at least 6 major closures in the last 12 years.
The first few days of replacement buses were plagued by issues in my experience. Several buses not turning up at all, one which didn't know where Holmwood station was and let people off on the side of the A24 dual carriageway. Several local buses did not know about ticket acceptance, despite it being advertised by Southern. The replacement buses were not timed well and made a poor connection with the xx:17 at Dorking for Victoria.
This week things have been much better. The Dorking-bound replacement buses have been re-timed to connect nicely with the xx:43 (now xx:45) off Dorking. Interestingly 1I48 17:25 Victoria to Horsham peak extra, which was running via East Croydon at first, is now cancelled. Without the peak extra the 17:11 and 17:41 are absolutely rammed up to Sutton, showing the need for such services on the Northern end of the line. Fortunately, there is a bus replacement for that peak service which connects nicely with the 17:11 off Victoria.
We are now in the curious situation where no trains are scheduled to use platform 1 at Dorking. Initially, inbound trains were shunting from platform 3 to platform 1, but now the timings have been tweaked this is not necessary. I think this highlights the need for a facing crossover from the down Portsmouth to platform 1 between Boxhill and Dorking to allow down trains to use platform 1. This would also help when 1I48 misses its path and cannot pass Dorking due to platforms 2 & 3 being blocked. Bottom of a long list, of course.
*Full article copied below:
Works to repair a railway line after a landslip which has disrupted trains for a week are "on target" to be completed by 16 February, Network Rail says.
A landslip south of Ockley in Surrey has closed the line between Dorking and Horsham, West Sussex, since 23 January, with works ongoing to repair the land after parts of the track were left hanging off the edge of the slip.
A spokesperson for Network Rail, which is carrying out the repairs, said on Sunday that "speedy progress" meant the train line was still due to be re-opened in two weeks.
No trains are serving Ockley, Holmwood, or Warnham during the closure.
In a statement on X, Network Rail Kent and Sussex said: "In just one day, our team repairing the Ockley landslip undertook the installation of 47 steel piles as part of the work to rebuild and strengthen the embankment.
"Speedy progress has enabled the team to move to the next stage of the work, with earthworks now underway meaning that the project in on target to hand back the line between Dorking and Horsham to Southern Rail customers on Monday, 16 February."
Network Rail originally said the line would be closed until 31 January, but later extended the closure for a further two weeks.
An hourly train service will continue to run between Dorking and London Victoria, and services continue to run from Horsham to London Bridge and London Victoria, via Gatwick Airport.
The site next to Dorking station is up for sale atm so could be some good forward planning to buy part of it to rework the station or if Crossrail 2 isn't going to be a pipedream and give it a potentially more viable terminius than Epsom with some reworking
I passed one of the Rail Replacement buses in Horsham last Friday. Noticed it was sporting a mid grey livery with dark blue lettering denoting it was a Rail Replacement Bus all down the sides and on the ends. Is this a stand alone company which covers these operations countrywide or is it part of Network Rail?
Just idle curiosity, as usually these buses are a mismatch of non-sign written vehicles in a wide range of colours.
I passed one of the Rail Replacement buses in Horsham last Friday. Noticed it was sporting a mid grey livery with dark blue lettering denoting it was a Rail Replacement Bus all down the sides and on the ends. Is this a stand alone company which covers these operations countrywide or is it part of Network Rail?
Just idle curiosity, as usually these buses are a mismatch of non-sign written vehicles in a wide range of colours.
Go-Ahead London opened several outstations in the south-east on a similar basis, when they had the contract for Southern and Southeastern. More resources than this company though, maybe.
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