Gus Dunster talks about the current landslide and what he knows so far.
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00:00Here at Severn Valley and Gus can you just give us a bit of a brief rundown on what's
00:05happening in terms of the landslide and what you know at this stage?
00:08Yeah okay so on Wednesday we became aware that there was damage to the embankment on
00:15the railway between Hampton Loade and Bridge North. Since that point in time we're still
00:19in the process of undertaking assessments. There's people on site there today and again
00:23yesterday specialist engineers looking at the extent of the damage and obviously starting
00:28to begin to consider what the repair arrangements would be. We've got to continue that work
00:33next week so we won't know the full extent of what needs to be done probably until about
00:37this time next week.
00:38So if I was going to put you on the spot and say you know are we definitely going to have
00:43the line fully open this summer, Bridge North, Kidderminster, is it too early to say at this
00:48stage?
00:49It's a little bit early to say. I mean we will be re-opened to the public on the 15th
00:53of February for half term and the only bit of the railway that won't be open will be
00:57the section beyond Hampton Loade through to Bridge North. So Bridge North station itself
01:00will be open but you won't be able to get any trains from Bridge North. We'll be running
01:03trains only through Hampton Loade and Kidderminster. How long it will be before we reopen the railway
01:08through to Bridge North I don't know but obviously we will endeavour to do that as soon as practically
01:13possible but that could be some time. But I can't be more specific about that. We won't
01:18know really for another week or so how long the work is going to take or how much it will
01:23be costing.
01:24Yeah I guess we must stress every penny counts and there's plenty going on at Bridge North
01:27station. You've got the shop, the pub and the tea room and they will still be open and
01:32doing their good work.
01:33They certainly will be yeah. We'll look to see what we can do at Bridge North station
01:38obviously for visitors who come onto the station as you've said there. We haven't quite decided
01:43yet what we might be able to do to get people from Bridge North to get on the rest of the
01:46railway but we are looking at getting some options on that so more to come on that.
01:49Right well all the best with it Gus, thank you.
01:51No worries.