ENGINEERS 'working around the clock' to repair a huge landslip in Hampshire have announced when they plan to reopen all four railway lines.

Commuters were advised not to travel when the landslip at Hook caused travel mayhem on January 14, affecting services from Dorset.

Some direct train services began running betwen Weymouth and London Waterloo as engineers attempted to get some of the four lines back up and running in the aftermath of the slip. 

Network Rail has now announced that it plans to reopen all of the lines by Friday, February 24.

Engineers needed to build a 580-metre-long access road across fields to get materials and machinery to the site due to the incident's remote location. 

They have built a 60-metre retaining wall, made up of one hundred 12-metre long ‘sheet piles’ which are driven into the ground to stabilise the embankment.

As well as using 9,000 tonnes of stone in the repair, workers will also regrade the steepness of the embankment slope to reduce the risk of material falling. 

Following the landslip, engineers reconfigured the track layout onto a stable section of the land to enable six trains an hour to run. 

Network Rail says it now needs to close the railway again once the embankment is repaired to reinstate the track layout to its original position.

Once this is complete, trains travelling towards Basingstoke can call at Hook again from Monday, February 13 at a reduced frequency.

From this date until Thursday, February 23, engineers will close the railway between Farnborough and Basingstoke early each night to restore the track layout, which means alterations to late night and early morning services.

The last through services between London Waterloo and Weymouth will depart much earlier than usual, Network Rail said. 

Services for February 13 to 17 will be updated by the morning of February 10, while services from February 18 to 24 are being finalised. 

Travellers are being asked to check before they travel and allow extra time to complete their journeys.

Mark Killick, Network Rail route director, said: “We’d like to thank customers and residents living alongside the railway for their patience while we’ve carried out this major repair.

“Fixing the landslip at Hook has been an incredibly tough and complicated job. I’m so sorry our customers will have to endure more disruption before we can reopen all four lines.

"Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution, but this approach is the least disruptive to our customers overall."