18 September (Part 4) - No trains again. Nine days of replacement buses but all in a good cause
While
trying to work out if Engineering Works was set to ruin my train journey to Royston next Sunday more rail related
news came in in the form of a Press Release from Network Rail.
If you cast your mind back to last March you may recall a
very interesting (to me) report on how Network Rail
was trying to combat the poor ground conditions around Barnehurst station
and the less than wonderful Victorian engineering practices that had led to four
landslips in just a handful of years.
The costs involved in fixing the whole stretch of line were prohibitive but
Network Rail promised to tackle the most vulnerable stretch within the next five years.
They have done rather better than that and will spend £6·6 million on the line next February.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Southeastern will be unable to provide a train service between
Kidbrook and Barnehurst next February 15th to 23rd but things can’t carry on as they are, the
job has to be done.
A whole load of detail is
available on the Network Rail website.
Councillor Stefano Borella (Labour, Slade Green and North End) thought that
affected passengers would prefer an express bus to Abbey Wood instead of towards London.
I think I can see practical problems with that but Stef knows far more than I do
about trains. If you think it would be a good idea maybe you should tell your
Councillor.