Railway line to reopen more than four months after landslide

A RAILWAY line is to reopen more than four months after a landslide forced it to close.

Cracks emerged in an embankment close to Baildon's railway station at the start of the year and the line - which runs between Bradford Forster Square and Ilkley - has been shut since February 9.

But Network Rail has announced it will be back in use this Sunday, with services will be able to run again between the two stations.

The Government company said monitoring of the landslip repair will continue to make sure there are no issues or risks to train services.

The landslip back in February (Image: Network Rail)

Engineers were on site from February 5 this year and Bill Woulds, who lives near the landslip but his property was not affected, said back then that they worked 24 hours a day for around 10 days from that point.

The line had been due to reopen in March - but Network Rail previously said its engineers had been "unable to make any meaningful progress on site for several weeks" for safety reasons.

Work has also been taking place to demolish two properties by the line as they were deemed to be structurally unsafe following the landslip.

Network Rail said it "deeply sympathised" with the homeowners affected and would continue to make "every effort to look after their interests".

A spokesperson for the railway network firm said at the start of this month that its teams were "working around-the-clock" to get the line open again by the end of June.

Some of the work that has happened over the past four or so months (Image: Network Rail)

Now it is open, it means rail users will no longer have to take a lengthy detour to get between Bradford and Ilkley.

Currently, it requires a trip from Bradford Forster Square to Shipley, then Shipley to Guiseley, before taking a train from there to Ilkley - and vice versa.

Residents shared their concerns about the landslip back in February but Network Rail has thanked them, as well as passengers for their patience and understanding while services have been affected.

Jason Hamilton, Network Rail’s route director for its North & East route, said: “I know this has been a difficult time for the community and I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all impacted local residents for their support and cooperation throughout our work.

“I also want to say thank you to passengers who have faced disruption to rail services for their patience and understanding of the situation.”

Kerry Peters, regional director for Northern Rail, said: “I’d like to thank our customers for their patience while this complicated and safety-critical work was carried out by Network Rail.

"We appreciate it has caused significant disruption to people’s journeys over several weeks and we are very happy to be able to resume services along the line once again.”