Landslip closes Honiton railway tunnel for second time in week

No trains will run between Honiton and Axminster until Monday due to a landslip.

Network Rail Wessex said its teams had been "working round the clock" to stabilise the landslip at the entrance of Honiton Tunnel, which had seen 30mm of rain between Friday and Saturday.

The route had only just reopened on Wednesday after another landslip had caused it to close a day earlier.

The company said their ongoing efforts to build a protective wall had been "significantly hampered" by the wet weather.

"Despite the current sunshine, we are still seeing significant levels of water continuing to flow from the top of the tunnel and we expect this to further slow our work", a spokesperson said.

"Teams are in the middle of drilling the holes in which the supports of the wall will be installed, however the soft mud means this is a difficult process, and with 8 needing to be drilled to a depth of 6m it’s proving a challenge"The safety of our passengers and engineers is always our number one priority, so we will be opening the line later then planned with remote monitoring, watchmen and additional ballast bags as needed", they added.

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