
Rail passengers warned ahead of Redhill to Tonbridge line closure
The railway embankment near Edenbridge will be strengthened with a 360-metre-long steel wall either side of the track following disruption caused by landslips in recent years.Additionally, 11 bridges will undergo structural inspections and 200m of rail will be replaced at Godstone.
During the works, there will be no trains between Redhill and Tonbridge. Instead, replacement buses will run.Journeys are expected to take longer than usual and passengers are urged to allow extra time, Southern said.Ms McAuliffe added: "By working over ten consecutive days in August, we can get the work done much more quickly and avoid weekend after weekend of bus replacement services, which we know is frustrating for our passengers."It also means we won't disrupt school and college students, who make a significant percentage of passengers on the route in term time."

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Rail strikes resume with bank holiday shutdown on CrossCountry trains
Rail strikes will resume over the August bank holiday weekend, with walkouts planned at CrossCountry trains. Members of the RMT have been called out on Saturday 23 and bank holiday Monday (25 August) in a dispute over what the union calls a 'breakdown in industrial action'. The RMT will also order members not to scan tickets on trains from Sunday 24 August onwards. CrossCountry has a network stretching from Aberdeen to Penzance, with its main hub at Birmingham New Street. It links key cities including Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and serves London Stansted airport. Eddie Dempsey, general secretary of the RMT, told members: 'I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues again for returning a splendid result in the ballot for industrial action. 'This dispute is about protecting the future of your jobs, the protection of negotiated agreements and the right of your union to represent you effectively.' In previous strikes CrossCountry has maintained a skeleton operation with a sharply reduced number of routes and trains. The Independent has sought responses from Arriva, the company that runs the CrossCountry operation, and the Department for Transport. Last summer, Labour claimed to resolved two years of frequent stoppages by members of the two main rail unions, the RMT and Aslef – representing the train drivers' union. This strike, however, suggests peace might not yet have arrived.


The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
How Birmingham Airport closure sparked air travel chaos across Europe
Birmingham Airport shut its runway after an 'incident with a light aircraft' on Wednesday (6 August), resulting in all flights being suspended until the runway opened later that day. Simon Calder, The Independent 's travel correspondent, discusses some of the long delays and journey revisions that occurred as a result of the incident, as thousands of passengers still face disruption. A light aircraft, which was carrying three people onboard was forced into an emergency landing at the airport while en-route to Belfast International Airport, after experiencing issues with its landing gear. Three people were treated at the scene, West Midlands Ambulance Service said, with police confirming that one person was left with minor injuries following the incident.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Birmingham Airport delays continue after emergency landing closure
Passengers continue to face hours of delays following the closure of Birmingham Airport's runway, after a plane was forced to make an emergency runway was shut on Wednesday afternoon when the small aircraft returned to the airport after it's landing gear failed on a flight to remained closed for more than six hours while staff worked to remove the plane, with thousands of airline passengers stranded or runway reopened after 19:30 BST, when the plane was moved. The first flight departed shortly after, having originally been scheduled to leave at 14:10. Is Birmingham Airport open and are there delays? In a notice on its website, Birmingham Airport said it was now "operating to its normal schedule" but warned that passengers might face some residual online departures list on Thursday morning showed several flights leaving later than 05:55 BST Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, for example, departed at 09:57, while the 06:30 TUI service to Kefalonia was estimated to take off at about 12: flights have experienced shorter delays, ranging from about 35 minutes to a couple of hours. What happened and was anyone injured? According to aircraft charter and management company, Woodgate Aviation, one of its Beechcraft fixed-wing planes developed landing gear problems on its journey to Belfast after taking off from Birmingham at 13: aircraft returned to Birmingham, landing at 13:58."The aircraft returned to Birmingham and made an emergency landing and the main undercarriage collapsed on touch down," the company confirmed two crew members and one passenger were on board but were not Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service and Birmingham Airport Police were among the agencies at the scene. Birmingham Airport said its teams worked as quickly as possible to move the aircraft in line with "strict protocols".A spokesperson said the protocols had to be followed to "ensure a safe reopening of the runway following a prolonged closure".Woodgate said it would co-operate fully with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which confirmed it was looking into the AAIB statement said a multi-disciplinary team of inspectors was deployed to the site. How did the incident affect passengers? With the closure lasting for more than six hours, many passengers suffered significant delays or saw their flights diverted to other least 10 flights due to depart from the airport were cancelled, while others were delayed by more than five which were due to land at Birmingham were diverted to other passengers told the BBC that their flights were cancelled "moments before boarding" on Wednesday Airport said it understood the frustration and apologised for the disruption. Faye, who was travelling with her partner and four children, said they found out about the incident on had been due to fly to Antalya in Turkey with Jet2 at 14:55. While waiting at the airport, the family was given £10 per person by the airline for food and subsequently received a text message saying the holiday had been cancelled and there would be a full refund in four to five and her family were waiting to collect their baggage, along with about 400 other people, her children "sobbing and crying"."We are stuck here waiting for our baggage and it's boiling hot... and now our kids aren't going to have a holiday," she said at the time. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.