flooding Tiverton to Exeter

[whole diary]

[infoman]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) local TV News Spotlight are reporting the line is closed(at 07:00am tuesday morning) from Tiverton to Exeter due to flooding.

[PhilWakely]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) local TV News Spotlight are reporting the line is closed(at 07:00am tuesday morning) from Tiverton to Exeter due to flooding.

Same location (Staffords Bridge) as has been since Christmas Eve (bar a few hours on 27th). GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is expecting disruption all day. There has been no rain in the Exeter area for 24 hours now, but I don't know what the situation is further upstream.

[LiskeardRich]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) local TV News Spotlight are reporting the line is closed(at 07:00am tuesday morning) from Tiverton to Exeter due to flooding.

Same location (Staffords Bridge) as has been since Christmas Eve (bar a few hours on 27th). GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is expecting disruption all day. There has been no rain in the Exeter area for 24 hours now, but I don't know what the situation is further upstream.

A colleague of mine driving one of the rail replacement coaches last night on our group messenger said it had just started pouring again. About 8ish last night

[a-driver]

The works Network Rail carried out at Cowley Bridge seem to have caused the problem at Stafford?s Bridge. NR^» (Network Rail - home page) carried out earthworks near to the river and as a result you?ll now notice the flood plains don?t flood, the calvert they installed at Cowley Bridge that is dry!  All the water remains in the river!  They need to make changes that will allow the river to break it banks and flood the flood plains again.

They are hoping the water levels have dropped the 2ft required to enable an inspection to be carried out this evening at 20:00.  If this happens and they?re satisfied there?s no damage the line will reopen.  Wether they?ll be able to inspect in the dark, W time will tell!

[grahame]

Looks like it may be open tomorrow.

Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway

Due to flooding between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway all lines are blocked.

Train services running through these stations will be cancelled or suspended between Tiverton Parkway and Exeter St Davids. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Once re-opened, how much effort goes into looking at what happened, learning from experience, and perhaps taking some of the mitigating actions I have seen suggested.   Will anything happen, or will there be a big sigh of relief that the line is open again and this closure will be more or less forgotten about until next time?

[a-driver]

Looks like it may be open tomorrow.

Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway

Due to flooding between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway all lines are blocked.

Train services running through these stations will be cancelled or suspended between Tiverton Parkway and Exeter St Davids. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Once re-opened, how much effort goes into looking at what happened, learning from experience, and perhaps taking some of the mitigating actions I have seen suggested.   Will anything happen, or will there be a big sigh of relief that the line is open again and this closure will be more or less forgotten about until next time?

Comes down to cost I suppose and given the length of the closure on this occasion its going to be expensive.  I guess something will get done if they analyse and realise the rainfall wasn?t that significant, if the water levels, on average, are considerably higher than in recent years and how much potential there is for damage to the structure should the area be hit by a prolonged deluge of rain.
I?ve heard that removing the weir would potentially solve the problem and I?m guessing that?s not going to be hugely expensive

[stuving]

Network Rail announced their preferred solution in 2014, which was:

Network Rail has today announced its preferred solution for tackling the problem of continual flooding at Cowley and Stafford bridges in Exeter. This solution involves the removal of three weirs close to the bridges to lower the water level in this part of the River Exe.
...

When I found that, I thought is was oddly worded - like it was nothing to do with (for example) the Environment Agency, just something NR^» (Network Rail - home page) could do themselves. But as well as the work on the tracks, further modelling has been afoot. This was a parliamentary answer of 4 April 2018 (from Lord Gardiner of Kimble,The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs):

The Environment Agency (EA) agreed in 2014, following flooding of the railway line in 2012 and 2013/14, to assist Network Rail in finding a technically appropriate solution to the problem, whilst ensuring that it does not conflict with the ?30 million investment in new flood defences in Exeter.

The EA has had regular meetings with Network Rail to provide advice on its culvert installation and weir removal works at Cowley Bridge. The EA has also been working with Network Rail since November 2017 to advise on the flood risk modelling for its weir removal proposals. This includes the EA providing flood history information, geomorphology commentary and examples of issues experienced in other local weir removal projects.

The EA has also established a team to assist Network Rail with the technical and permitting requirements of both phases of its works at Cowley Bridge, and has accelerated the issuing of permits for the culvert works.

Network Rail?s modelling is expected to be completed in spring 2018 and on completion the EA will provide feedback on the outputs. This is to ensure that Network Rail?s proposals do not increase flood risk to residential properties or adversely impact on the level of protection provided by new flood defences in Exeter. The EA will prioritise this work to ensure a timely response to Network Rail.

Although flood risk models have been available for discrete areas around Exeter and the Cowley Bridge location since 2005, no single model takes account of the whole system or all watercourses. The EA is working with Network Rail to ensure its latest modelling is comprehensive. In the interim there is a flood warning system for Cowley Bridge. This has been in place since 2012, with improvements to the forecasting model introduced in November 2017.

I think the work done so far included the culverts to get water across the line and into the Exe.When any weir removal might happen is another matter. Has anyone heard anything definite?

[Southernman]

What is interesting, is that services to Barnstaple resumed after a few hours, whereas in previous flooding events, this line has been closed for as long, if not longer that the Western main line.

Possibly the water has been diverted away to good effect. No ballast to replace this time?

[PhilWakely]

Opened this morning (Wed 30/12). Although 1A73 (The Golden Hind) timings had been loaded into RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) routed via Yeovil Junction - it went via Taunton.



*** Edited as the date was slightly incorrect ***

[a-driver]

What is interesting, is that services to Barnstaple resumed after a few hours, whereas in previous flooding events, this line has been closed for as long, if not longer that the Western main line.

Possibly the water has been diverted away to good effect. No ballast to replace this time?

The line wasn?t flooded, and the issue wasn?t at Cowley Bridge, it was nearer Stoke Cannon at a river bridge where the level of water under the bridge was deemed to high. Water was pretty much lapping up against the bridge girder.

[Electric train]

Looks like it may be open tomorrow.

Cancellations to services between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway

Due to flooding between Exeter St Davids and Tiverton Parkway all lines are blocked.

Train services running through these stations will be cancelled or suspended between Tiverton Parkway and Exeter St Davids. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Once re-opened, how much effort goes into looking at what happened, learning from experience, and perhaps taking some of the mitigating actions I have seen suggested.   Will anything happen, or will there be a big sigh of relief that the line is open again and this closure will be more or less forgotten about until next time?

Network Rail's Regional Geotechnical Team will review what happened and work with the Environment Agency, Local Authorities and land owners to develop a solution.  Sometimes its not always the Railway that is causing the flooding problem, the water may need management elsewhere