Rainfall floods railway station

A city station is closed, some trees are down in a beauty spot and several homes are without power as the heavy rainfall continues to batter the UK. Network Rail shut down electricity at Southampton Central Station after the tracks were flooded. It will remain closed until at least 1700 BST. London to Weymouth and London to Poole services are terminating at Eastleigh, for South West Trains (SWT) buses.



Meanwhile, about 100 Hampshire homes are without power. Seventy properties are affected in Holt and Mannington in Wimborne and 30 households in Shirley in Southampton. Southern Electric said their engineers were "working to restore supplies as quickly as possible".

Trees that have come down across Brockenhurst in the New Forest have led SWT to divert its replacement buses as a precaution. "So far five buses have been laid on and we are hoping to lay on more," a spokesman for SWT said. "The buses are running between Bournemouth and Southampton Airport/Eastleigh - bypassing Brockenhurst because of the trees down in the New Forest area. "The situation could continue for the next three hours."


Network Rail said it was waiting for the water at the station to subside

Network Rail said it had "people who deal with specific flooding issues on site" at Southampton Central railway station. "The first reports of flooding came in at 7.30am," a spokesman said. "The water is a couple of feet deep in the tracks. Because of the hill coming down from the city centre the drains are overflowing onto the tracks." The spokesman added the company would have to wait until the water subsides before assessing the situation - which would be at least three hours. "We will repair and test - where necessary - equipment that may have been affected by the water like signalling and points," the spokesman said.

_{Bron: BBC}
  | Gewijzigd: 13 februari 2017, 11:38 uur, door Joyce.s