Dover-Folkestone problems WERE predicted...
Successive reports have warned to expect problems along Folkestone Warren. Here constant maintenance and monitoring guards against future landslips.
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1915 Folkestone Warren landslip closed the line for FOUR YEARS!. Although a passenger train ran into the damaged track, miraculously no-one was injured.
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A Network Rail Report in 2013 warned that keeping this line open could not be guaranteed.
In the long term: 'HS trains via Dover and Canterbury?'
"Revive KCC suggestion and build it now" says Trains4Deal
It won't solve our immediate problems, but a relatively small capital expenditure will future-proof coastal line against climate change and natural disasters.
In 2013 Paul Crick, then Director of Planning and Environment for Kent County Council wrote a paper suggesting that around £2 million should be allocated for a new rail connection so that the line from Canterbury East would join with the mainline to Ashford as this would enable HS1 trains to travel from Deal and Sandwich via Dover to Canterbury East and on to London in the event of a rock fall or other disaster on the vulnerable coastal route.
"Revive KCC suggestion and build it now" says Trains4Deal
It won't solve our immediate problems, but a relatively small capital expenditure will future-proof coastal line against climate change and natural disasters.
In 2013 Paul Crick, then Director of Planning and Environment for Kent County Council wrote a paper suggesting that around £2 million should be allocated for a new rail connection so that the line from Canterbury East would join with the mainline to Ashford as this would enable HS1 trains to travel from Deal and Sandwich via Dover to Canterbury East and on to London in the event of a rock fall or other disaster on the vulnerable coastal route.
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Less than two years on and the eminent good sense of the suggestion is clear. However the 30 year time-frame of the original suggestion should now be radically speeded up.
It is agreed that there are so many known vulnerabilities on the coast line between Folkestone to Dover that other disasters are likely to disrupt travel in the future, and we're asking the new Director, Katie Stewart, to take up this issue with urgency. "A route via Minster is no good for Dover, because it really would be a long way round," said Trains4deal's Ian Killbery. "We want to see the Folkestone coastal route stay open, and support it being rebuilt as quickly as possible, but the Canterbury diversion is the only one that offers long term security for Dover's HS routes to London, as well as Deal and Sandwich's." |
KCC's route from Dover to Ashford via Canterbury, rather than Folkestone would only add 4 minutes to journey time, whilst securing reliabilty and avoiding risk of future closures, says Trains4deal, urging KCC to press ahead with their suggestion.
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How it could be done
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The KCC proposal
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Also in 2013, Kent County Council urged Network Rail to plan " a new curve between Chartham and Canterbury East would provide an alternative route in the event of line closure due to rock collapse between Folkestone Central and Dover Priory." The timescale? "over the next 30 years".
Travellers on HS1 trains from Deal and Sandwich would be able to get to St Pancras in the same times as those going via Folkestone. Also a new fast connection to Canterbury from the coastal towns would be created. Adding an additional stop north of Dover (at Kearsney or Shepherdswell) would expand the potential customer base from new developments and make travel to London from those stations as fast as it now is from Martin Mill and Walmer. |
http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/1244/dd-june-2013-kent.pdf
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Trains4deal asks, "Where's the orange army?"
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Collapse of seawall at Dawlish
How they re-opened this rail line in 2 months
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Damaged seawall:
'months of disruption' for local rail travellers
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