Ockley Landslip Repaired as Horsham–Dorking Line To Reopen on Monday

Train services between Horsham and Dorking are set to resume on Monday 16 February after engineers completed repairs to a major landslip at Ockley that left one track suspended in mid-air. The line has been closed since 27 January after soil gave way on an embankment south of Ockley station, rendering both tracks impassable.

Network Rail said teams worked around the clock to rebuild the damaged section of railway. With the route fully shut, engineers were also able to carry out additional preventative work near the site. In total, 324 soil nails were installed to reinforce the embankment, while care was taken to protect the surrounding ecology during the recovery operation.

The landslip occurred along a nine-metre stretch of embankment in what engineers described as a “rotational failure”, where saturated soil shifted from beneath the tracks. The ground had been weakened following days of heavy rainfall on top of an already persistently wet winter.

Network Rail Sussex route director, Lucy McAuliffe, said:

“This was a significant landslip for our teams to respond to, and I can only apologise to passengers who have been impacted by this closure. The team worked around the clock to rebuild the railway at Ockley in just a few weeks, which is an incredible achievement, but we know how important this railway is to people and how crucial it was to get regular train services back on track. I’d like say a huge thank-you to passengers and to the local community for their patience and support while we made the railway safe again.”

Network Rail project manager, Nad Campbell, said:

“Firstly, we needed to stabilise the embankment, stopping it from moving, and then had to rebuild the railway by removing the damaged track and bringing in a piling rig to install 47 steel piles. That meant building a concrete platform strong enough to carry a 50-tonne machine. We also had to remove all of the failed material – 2,800 tonnes of it – and reshaped the slope into what’s called a benched formation, which looks like giant steps. That helped us lock the new stone in and make the structure stronger. By bringing in the new material by train we made a carbon reduction of 76 per cent and removed the need for around 140 deliveries by lorry. The team effort involved in rebuilding this section of railway has been fantastic – from Network Rail’s teams to our suppliers at M Group, our drone operators at Mulholland Media who recorded the hive of activity on site, and the excellent working relationship our ecologists have had with Natural England in ensuring dormice licences were issued in record time.”

Jenny Saunders, Customer Service Director for GTR that runs Southern Railway, said:

"Through careful work, we've managed to keep the vast majority of our passengers on the move by train, but for local trips it has been necessary to take one of our buses, which has taken longer. So, it really is very good news that the landslip is now repaired and we can restore our full service. I am grateful for our passengers' understanding and patience and thank Network Rail for reopening the tracks on time."

Image: Network Rail