Work ends on National Rail £2.28m project to prevent landslips on Fareham to Eastleigh railway line

Following a nine-day line closure which saw commuters use a bus replacement service while works took place, engineers have finished the project.

The works tackled the steepness of a railway cutting near Fareham Tunnel, where the line is cut deeply into the hillside.

The now shallower slopes will minimise the risk of landslips which could be caused by earth movements in extreme weather.

Work began on June 24 and South Western Railway (SWR) services on the line from Eastleigh to Fareham were replaced by buses until the railway reopened on Monday, July 3.

The project used 20 construction vehicles and 10 trains, as engineers excavated 5,000 tonnes of earth from the steepest side of the cutting before building an 80-metre-long retaining wall.

Hundreds of engineers worked a total of 7,500 hours during the closure, and also completed maintenance work to improve reliability, including work on track, switches and crossings, electrical, signalling and drainage.

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Network Rail’s Wessex route director, Mark Killick, said: ‘We appreciate that closing the railway for a week was disruptive, especially on the back of the recent rail strikes, but this job was absolutely vital to keeping the line open and safe in future.

‘We’re not only reducing the risk of landslips but we’re getting the job done in a far less disruptive way than closing the line repeatedly at weekends.’

SWR’s customer experience director Christian Neill said: ‘By spending time engineering a permanent solution and taking the opportunity to carry out other maintenance and improvements, customers will now experience greater reliability on this section of railway.’