Rail resilience is hailed a decade after storms

A DECADE after storms battered the main rail line between London and Plymouth, Network Rail says the route is now more resilient against bad weather.

- CLARE AINSWORTH

However, there remains more to do to secure the rail network from flooding, the Peninsula Rail Task Force has warned.

In February 2014, a storm battered the Devon coastline at Dawlish, cutting off the only railway line to Plymouth and Cornwall for eight weeks. Ten years on, a £165 million package of resilience measures built by Network Rail and funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) is proving to be effective at protecting the iconic stretch of track from rising sea levels and extreme weather.

After the storm, which struck on February 4/5 a decade ago, the South West Rail Resilience Programme was set up, following detailed studies to help to determine how the railway between Dawlish and Teignmouth could better withstand such events.

Network Rail says that, since 2019, the programme has delivered: A stronger, taller sea wall for Dawlish between Boat Cove and Coastguard's breakwater, with a new high-level promenade, link bridge and curved design to deflect waves back to the sea; A new footbridge with lifts at Dawlish station, making it fully accessible for the first time; A 109m rockfall shelter at the northern end of Parson's Tunnel, built from 185 pre-cast concrete units, coloured red to match the local sandstone, to protect the railway from the cliffs above; The start of work to install 19,700 square metres of netting, secured by more than 6,000 soil nails, to improve cliff resilience between Dawlish and Holcombe. The project will continue until later this year.