The normal hourly train service will return west of Salisbury on 29 November after being reduced to two-hourly as the result of excessively dry weather, which caused the foundations of the track to sink and speed restrictions to be imposed.

The extremely dry conditions caused clay embankments between Gillingham and Axminster to shrink, a problem known as ‘Soil Moisture Deficit’. Because much of the route between Salisbury and Exeter St Davids was singled many years ago by British Rail, the slower trains could not pass each other at the usual places, so an emergency timetable was introduced late July and trains could not call at Crewkerne for two weeks..

More recently, autumn rain and lower temperatures have been slowly restoring moisture levels, the clay embankments are stabilising, and engineers can begin to restore track levels. Once their work is complete, the line’s speed restrictions will be removed and the full timetable reinstated.

Network Rail’s Wessex Route operations director Tom Desmond, speaking on behalf of South Western Railway and Network Rail, said: ‘We can confirm that we are set to restore the full timetable on the West of England Line on Saturday 29 November. We know just how important this line is to its local communities, with our customers using services to reach their places of work, or local schools and colleges.

‘We have closely monitored ground conditions and are now able to start track repairs. Once those repairs are complete, trains will be able to run at full line speeds, bringing the full timetable back into operation.

‘We are very grateful to our customers for their continued patience and would like to sincerely apologise for the disruption they have experienced since August.’

Readers’ comments

That’s good news, but it needs to be accompanied by adding more passing places and/or extending existing two tracking BEFORE next summer.

John Porter, Leeds

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