Flooding between Yeovil and Exeter

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

From GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Journey Check

Cancellations to services between Castle Cary and Exeter St Davids
Due to a river flooding the railway between Castle Cary and Exeter St Davids all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or diverted. Some stations between Taunton and Exeter St Davids will not be served. Disruption is expected until 10:00 06/03.

Customer Advice
If you wish to use local buses as an alternative means of transport and the local bus is not accepting Great Western Railway tickets, please keep the bus ticket and send it, together with your rail ticket, to us for a refund.

Further Information
An update will follow within the next 2 hours.
Replacement road transport is in operation in both directions between Taunton and Exeter St. Davids.
Last Updated:06/03/2019 06:07

From SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) Journey Check:

Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Yeovil Junction
Due to heavy rain flooding the railway between Exeter St Davids and Yeovil Junction all lines are closed.

What's Going On:
Train services running through these stations have been cancelled. Disruption is expected until 10:00 06/03.

What We're Doing About It:
Our control centre has been informed that heavy rain has caused the railway to flood between Exeter St Davids and Yeovil Junction. Due to the level of flood water, it is not currently safe for us to run our trains through the affected area.

We are NOT able to offer ticket acceptance on GWR services, as their line is closed for tunnel repair work, so they are using our West of England line. This means that there are currently no trains travelling between Exeter St Davids and Yeovil Junction.

Trains are able to run from Yeovil Junction to Salisbury directly or via Westbury.
Very limited road transport has been arranged to call at all stations between Exeter St Davids and Yeovil Junction in both directions, calling at all stations. Please note that this transport will not run to a fixed timetable.

If you need help in completing your journey, please speak to a member of station staff, use a station help point or visit southwesternrailway.com.

We are very sorry for the delay that this will cause to your journey.

Further Information
If you would prefer to use local buses to continue your journey please check Traveline (http://www.traveline.info/) - South Western Railway tickets are not valid on local buses unless stated above.
Last Updated:06/03/2019 05:56

[Timmer]

All reopen. From Twitter:

The line has reopened between Exeter St Davids and Castle Cary following a river flooding the railway earlier this morning. Train services running through these stations may still be disrupted so please check your journey before travelling.

[JayMac]

Precise location of the flooding was at and between the level crossings Axe and Broom between Axminster and Chard Junction. The River Axe flows close to the line here.



I was at Axe Crossing just the other day filming diverted GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services. What a difference a few days make. Hasn't stopped raining in this part of the world since 6pm yesterday.

[Timmer]

What a difference a few days make. Hasn't stopped raining in this part of the world since 6pm yesterday.

Indeed, we've gone from Spring/early Summer like conditions straight back into Winter conditions of cold, wet and miserable 

[bradshaw]

That was the location for the flooding improvements was it not? The line seems to have closed around 0330 and reopened around 0800 so presumably the scheme has improved the time taken to deal with that volume of water.

[JayMac]

There are improved bridges for the railway where it crosses the river. I guess not improved enough when there is a localised cloudburst as there was earlier this morning. I took a drive out to both the Axe and Broom crossings mid morning. Both roads are still flooded. The road on the west side of Broom LC^▸ (Level Crossing) looked too deep for me to attempt to drive through in my Megane. I saw a truck and 4x4 manage it but I wasn't risking it. I parked up at Broom and went back the way I came from the east. The approach road to Axe Crossing was also flooded on the east side of the crossing. This was passable, although I waited to see another normal car attempt it first!

The land next to Broom LC:


Back up to linespeed at 1130. 1A81 passing Broom LC:


Also in the area I spotted two helicopters circling. One was Western Power Distribution's, inspecting power lines after the overnight wind and flooding. The other could have been Network Rail's but it didn't overfly me so I can't be sure.

WPD helicopter near Broom LC:

[bradshaw]

Then the 11.22Plymouth Paddington hit a road sign near Wimple. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) engineers effected repairs and passed Crewkerne about 70 late.
It caused SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) cancellations and one train was turned around forming the 1435 Pinhoe to Waterloo.

[PhilWakely]

Then the 11.22Plymouth Paddington hit a road sign near Wimple. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) engineers effected repairs and passed Crewkerne about 70 late.
It caused SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) cancellations and one train was turned around forming the 1435 Pinhoe to Waterloo.

[pedant mode]The SWR train wasn't actually turned around at Pinhoe. It was the 1325 Exeter St Davids to Waterloo in its original guise, but was held at Pinhoe amongst the mayhem caused by the hooligans. The 1325 was subsequently cancelled at Pinhoe and ran instead as the 1435 Pinhoe to Waterloo, with the 1425 Exeter St Davids to Waterloo being cancelled between Exeter St Davids and Pinhoe[/pedant mode]

The 1435 Pinhoe to Waterloo was also formed of 9-cars following the challenges earlier in the day.