Call for extra funding to prevent railway landslides in West Yorkshire

A meeting heard weather-related incidents have increased due to excessive rainfall. The railway line between Knottingley and Pontefract Monkhill was shut for seven weeks after a section of embankment collapsed in March.

Serious infrastructure damage was also caused after a landslip at Baildon in February, resulting in the full closure of the Shipley-Guiseley line. Two homes next to line will have to be demolished after being affected by the same movement of land. The line is not expected to reopen until June.

According to the Met Office, England had its sixth wettest year on record in 2023, with 20 per more rain than on average.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (WYCA) transport committee heard efforts are being made to secure a share of a £2.8b funding pot to protect the railways from climate change and extreme weather.

Network Rail announced last month that it would release the funding over a five-year period to make embankments more resilient. Plans include recruiting around 400 drainage engineers, training staff to better interpret weather forecasts, and installing CCTV at sites with a high risk of flooding.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said at the time: “Climate change is the biggest challenge our railway faces.”

Dave Haskins, WYCA interim director for transport operations and passenger experience, told the meeting: “The rainfall has caused problems. We have seen that manifest itself in terms of the high profile cases, particularly around the landslide at Baildon. Network Rail is increasing money in a national fund of £2.8b around climate resilience and extreme weather.

“I think it’s particularly important for our area, where we have a significant amount of cuttings and embankments. Strategically, we need to make sure we continue to push Network Rail about getting what we need out of that.”

Committee chair Susan Hinchcliff: “It has been very disruptive for our residents over the last few months. It has taken a long time to sort out and it affects people’s lives and people’s houses.

“For me, it has opened up a new vista in terms of the climate emergency and the fact that land is getting more and more waterlogged becuase of all the rain we are having. This is an increasing problem across the north and perhaps across the country. It’s a major issue that we need to be on top of.”

Wakefield councillor Jakob Williamson said more should have been done to keep passengers informed following the disruption on the Pontefract to Knottingley line.

He said: “From our point of view there was a lot of issues around the communications. Whether that is to Wakefield Council, elected members and to residents as well. There seems to be a significant period where everybody didn’t really know what was going off with the landslip issue.

“There seemed to be a few complications with replacement bus services. We are quite pleased with the outcome of the replacement bus services but there was a lot of issues getting to that point. I don’t know if, going forward, there is anything we can do to improve the transfer of information from operators and Network Rail.”