Wednesday 19 February 2014

A visit to Dawlish

The recent storm impacts in Dawlish have received a lot of media attention. Various news items have been published by newspapers such as The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, mentioning the expected 6-week closure of the railway line for repairs, the evacuations of the houses behind the sea wall, the impact on the economy of the train disconnection between Cornwall and South West Devon to the rest of England. The BBC has also published various news items on the recent events at the Dawlish coast, including an interesting item on 'How to fix the Dawlish problem?' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26068375).

Last Sunday (the 16th), I went out to visit Dawlish and see some of the impacts of the recent storms for myself. The site where the major damages have happened to the sea wall and the railway, and where the houses are evacuated due to flood and landslide risks, has been closed off to the public. What it looks like to a visitor is like a big construction site, closed off by fences, with a lot of construction trucks and concrete grinders, and many construction workers in orange suits and helmets walking around. While being there, I realised how invasive it must probably feel for the inhabitants of Dawlish to have such a large part of their village turned into a construction site. I took some pictures that maybe give an impression on the situation: 



 

 






Wednesday 5 February 2014

& The sea wall broke...

As an update to yesterday's post: the sea wall at Dawlish has collapsed overnight; leaving the houses behind it very vulnerable to flooding, and the railway damaged and even inaccessible to start repairs. See this news item at the BBC website, which includes a short video and several pictures illustrating what's happened (pictures below come from this BBC site): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26042990
Damage to the railway line at DawlishWaves at Dawlish
Damage to the railway line at Dawlish










And here another short you tube movie from today (Feb 5th) of the waves coming over the sea wall at Dawlish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSfr6U4chfI

First Great Western, the railway company, has even increased their warning notice about the train service west of Exeter (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/)
Wednesday 05 February 2014.
Disruption to First Great Western Services
Severe Weather Notice.
All lines between Exeter St Davids and Penzance are now closed - Update at 1200
We are unable to offer a  train service West of  Exeter St Davids towards Penzance due to further overnight severe weather conditions. We are working with Network Rail to evaluate the rail conditions in many areas. Some Branch Line services in Devon and Cornwall are now operating . We are unable to procure road transport as many of the roads have been affected by the weather conditions.
We would strongly advise customers not to attempt to travel for the rest of today.
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Please check  JourneyCheck website and Twitter feed @FGW for up to date information before attempting to travel.



Tuesday 4 February 2014

High waves & no trains

Is climate change something that we should anticipate on because of future impacts? Sometimes impacts can be experienced in the very present. Whether attributable or not to human-induced climate change, or 'just an extreme weather event', the Southwest of England and the Midlands are currently experiencing the impacts of sea level rise and heavy precipitation for a relatively long period. Especially the county of Somerset has been severely hit by flooding last month. The Met Office (i.e. the weather forecast and climate research institute in the UK) has issued several weather warnings in the last month about flood risks in these areas, and expects the heavy weather to continue in the next week. 

The impacts of a high sea level can also be strikingly observed in one of our case studies, the South Devon Coast between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth. The combination of a high tide and strong winds, pushed the waves so high that the railway tracks along the Dawlish sea wall were damaged. A news item from the BBC explains that the supporting ballast under the railway tracks has been washed away by the waves (photo below from the BBC site): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-26038912

Damaged rail line at Dawlish


Here a short movie on you tube from the waves at Dawlish on February 4th: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0fWDSz5DM

The railway company First Great Western, which runs the main train services along this part of the coast, issued the following statement today:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/
Tuesday 04th February 2014.
All lines blocked between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot - Update at 1200
Train services between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot continue to be suspended due to yesterday's high seas and strong winds that caused significant damage to the track along the Dawlish sea wall.  Network Rail have already started to carry out repairs but we do not expect the affected lines to reopen until Friday 07th February at the earliest. Road transport is now operating between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot serving all stations on half hourly shuttle service.
To assist customers with journey's, all ticket restrictions have been lifted for all First Great Western services from, to and within Devon and Cornwall until further notice.
Before travelling, please check our JourneyCheck website and Twitter feed @FGW for up to date information.
This also shows how vital this part of the train line is for connecting Cornwall and the west of Devon to London and the rest of England. The map below shows the train lines in Cornwall and in the west of Devon in the lower left corner, marked in pink color (http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Your-journey/Route-Updates/All-services-in-Devon-and-Cornwall). It shows how important the connection is between Newton Abbot and Exeter, which runs along the Dawlish sea wall.