Train commuters have warned of unrest in and outside London after a ‘huge’ landslide near Basingstoke

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Commuters have been warned not to travel on certain services to and from London after a major railway line collapsed in a ‘massive’ landslide that left one track hanging in mid-air.

The 44-metre landslide occurred on the bridge north-east of Hook station in Hampshire, on the line from London to Basingstoke, during the week.

The incident caused significant disruption to services on Monday, with passengers warned not to travel from London towards the south or west of Basingstoke or vice versa.

National Rail on Monday warned passengers against “all but essential travel” on services that normally pass through the region – including trains between London and Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Southampton, Weymouth, Salisbury and Exeter.

The landslide left a single track hanging in mid-air

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Its website said: “Trains will not be able to serve Hook, Winchfield or Fleet stations until further notice. Please do not attempt to travel to or from these stations by train as you will not be able to do so.”

It added that while the wider South Western rail network was operating as normal, some such as London suburban services and trains between London and Portsmouth via Guildford, Reading or Windsor could be busier than normal due to the accident.

Network Rail Wessex route manager Mark Killick said: “This is a huge landslide and will have a massive impact on customers. The main line to Basingstoke is the backbone of our railway and there will be spillovers across the route.

“I can only apologize for the scale of the outage and ask customers to check before they travel this week, not just in the affected section, but all the way to London Waterloo, where many trains will use this section of the railway to start and end their journeys.

“We are still assessing the damage and it is difficult to put together a detailed timeline, but we know it will take at least a week.

“We’ll need to stabilize the bridge, basically stop it from moving, and then rebuild the railway where it slipped away.

“We will keep everyone posted on our progress and I can only say thank you to everyone for their patience and apologize again for the disruption. Please look out for further updates from South Western Railway on the revised timetable, once we are certain.”

A Network Rail spokesperson explained that the dam consists of a mixture of London Clay and other local soils that have become saturated after days of heavy rain.

He said: “The slip occurred when the soil along a 44-meter section of a 10-meter-high embankment slipped and slid out from under the tracks, in what engineers call a ‘spin failure’.

Network Rail and its suppliers are working on designs for the work required to repair the railway, which will give a clearer idea of ​​timetables.

In addition, a train plan to provide trip options for customers on the road will be published as soon as possible.

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