A person has died on the railway near Poole, forcing the closure of lines across Dorset and Hampshire and disrupting South Western Railway services to and from London for much of Friday morning.
Officers were called to the tracks at Poole at 6.32am on 12 June following reports of a casualty, and the person was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident is not being treated as suspicious. To allow the emergency services to carry out their work safely, all power to the tracks in the affected area was switched off, and every line between Poole and Weymouth was blocked.
The closure had wide-ranging knock-on effects. Services were cancelled, revised or severely delayed by up to 75 minutes across a string of routes, including those between London Waterloo and Poole or Weymouth, between Winchester and Poole, between Southampton Central and Poole or Weymouth, between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier or Weymouth, and between Bournemouth and Poole or Weymouth.
Rail operators had initially estimated that disruption would last until midday, while cautioning that this could be extended as the day went on. By 10.43am, there was still no update on when the lines might reopen. With power to the tracks switched off and the section between Poole and Weymouth remaining blocked, it was unclear when normal service would resume, and trains to London continued to be affected.
Incidents of this kind almost always require lines to be closed for a sustained period, both to give the emergency services unimpeded access and because the conductor rail that powers trains on the route must be switched off before anyone can safely reach the track. That combination tends to ripple far beyond the immediate location, which is why journeys as far afield as London Waterloo were caught up in Friday’s disruption.
This article touches on a sensitive subject. Anyone affected by what happened, or struggling to cope, can contact the Samaritans free of charge at any time on 116 123 for a confidential conversation.
