Two homes above 2,500t landslip in West Yorkshire to be demolished

This will enable the rail infrastructure operator to complete the works required to stabilise the embankment.

Engineers have been on site at Baildon, near Bradford, since 5 February after reports of cracks in a cutting slope close to the railway. The land did then slip on 9 February, resulting in 2,500t of soil settling on the railway.

Specialist road rail vehicles and other equipment were utilised to remove more than 1,800t of earth to stabilise the land but earlier this month, Network Rail announced the “complex nature of the site” was delaying the reopening of train services on the line, which are still suspended.

Network Rail said it cannot comment specifically on what makes the site complex.

Now, the rail infrastructure owner has said it will have to use its statutory powers to acquire two homes near to the line that will have to be demolished for repairs to continue.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Passengers who rely on this line have been inconvenienced by its closure since 9 February, and for safety reasons we have been unable to make any meaningful progress on site for several weeks.

“We are obliged to do everything we can to reopen this vital rail link for passengers, school children and their families, stakeholders and the broader West Yorkshire economy.

“We have been in discussions with various third parties since this incident was first reported to us six weeks ago, but the complex nature of the site and the critical need to reopen the line means that regrettably, we now have no remaining options but to use our statutory powers to allow us to resume the repairs to this site which will allow trains to start running again.”

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