Fareham-Eastleigh: Emergency stabilisation work to close railway line

Engineers found the site close to Fareham tunnel was at risk of a landslip

Emergency work to stabilise a railway cutting will involve 25m-long (82ft) steel nails being drilled into a slope and reinforced with concrete.

Engineers have deemed the site close to Fareham tunnel at risk of a landslip and the line to Eastleigh will be closed from Monday to Friday.

In 2022, Network Rail spent £2.3m easing the gradient of the cutting.

About 5,000 tonnes of soft clay were excavated and an 80m-long (262ft) retaining wall was built.

Network Rail said at the time that further remedial work could be expected and further earth movement has now been detected at a different part of the cutting.

During the five-day closure, South Western Railway services between Eastleigh and Fareham will be replaced by buses, and Portsmouth to London via Eastleigh trains will be diverted via Netley.

The services will have to stop at St Denys and reverse direction.

In 2014, a collapse on the same line at Botley closed the route for six weeks. At the time, Network Rail called it the largest railway landslip recorded in southern England.

In 2022, Network Rail spent £2.3m easing the gradient of the cutting

Matt Pocock, Wessex route director for Network Rail, said: "After the recent severe weather, our teams spotted land movement which means we had to act quickly to prevent a much worse and disruptive landslip."

There have been repeated problems ever since the railway opened in 1841.

The tunnel partially collapsed during construction, and was closed just four days after opening over concerns about tunnel stability, resuming two months later.

The area lies on a clay bed which once supported a nearby brick, tile and chimney pot factory.

When the Meon Valley line to Alton was built in 1897, it included a 2.2-mile double-track bypass of the tunnel known as the Funtley deviation.

The tunnel line was then reduced to a single track in 1906. The deviation route was closed in 1973 after it suffered from landslips. Much of the route is now a footpath known as the Knowle walking trail.

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