DAWLISH railway line will have to close overnight to allow reprice of a large sink hole which appeared after Storm Ingrid.

The large hole, measuring 8m by 3.5m appeared near the line act Sprey Point between Dawlish and Teignmouth.

The line will have to close between between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot from 7pm tomorrow to allow the work to take place and will reopen at 7am on Thursday 29 January.

Network Rail engineers will be onsite throughout the night working to fill the sinkhole with 200 tonnes of spoil.

The footpath between Teignmouth and Smuggler’s Lane will also be closed from Wednesday evening to allow for the safe completion of this repair work and will reopen early next week.

Services will continue to run between London and Exeter St Davids, and Newton Abbot and Penzance. Buses will run between Newton Abbot and Exeter St Davids, and Plymouth and Tiverton Parkway.

The Night Riviera Sleeper service will not run in either direction between Paddington and Penzance on tomorrow evening, resuming on Thursday 29 January.

Customers should travel earlier on Wednesday 28 January or later on Thursday 29 January, when their ticket will be valid. A limited rail replacement service will be in operation, but these buses are expected to be extremely busy.

Online journey planners are being updated and customers should check before travelling.

Great Western Railway Managing Director Mark Hopwood said: ‘To continue to be able to provide safe and reliable services on this really important section of track linking Devon and Cornwall, we need to make this repair as soon as possible.

‘To do so will unfortunately impact a small number of journeys, and we are working to keep this to a minimum.

‘We aim to have the line reopen early on Thursday morning though further inclement weather is forecast over the coming days and as ever the safety of our customers and colleagues is always our top priority.’

Network Rail route director Marcus Jones added: ‘Extreme weather during Storm Ingrid left a sinkhole near the railway that requires repair as soon as possible.

‘Our teams need to close the railway on Wednesday evening for 12 hours to allow us to safely move heavy equipment to the area and start working to fix this issue.

‘We’re very grateful to passengers and local residents for their patience while we complete these essential repairs.

‘To ensure this work can be completed safely, the footpath between Teignmouth and Smuggler’s Lane will also be closed from the evening of Wednesday 28 January until early next week.

‘We’re working as quickly as we can and will reopen the path as soon as it’s safe to do so.’