25.11.08
Flooded railway line reopens
The line between Caerphilly and Ystrad Mynach, closed owing to flooding, has now reopened to passengers following the completion of repairs.
Twenty-six locations, including Cardiff Central, Newport and Port Talbot, on the rail network in south Wales were hit hard by the heavy downpour. Six lines were closed as a result, although four were reinstated on the same day to allow passenger services to resume.
The valley line near Llanbradach was worst hit with Network Rail engineers working round the clock for nearly two weeks to bring it into operation. More than 30 engineers were mobilised and altogether spent 2,800 hours reinforcing the embankment by constructing a new retaining wall, rebuilding the railway track and repairing a nearby leaking gas main.
Andrew Wozencraft, infrastructure maintenance delivery manager, said: “At Llanbradach, the excess water eroded the embankment and resulted in a landslip. A retaining wall was built to strengthen the embankment and the drainage pipe was also renewed. The electricity and gas mains that were damaged were also diverted. The job took 2,800 hours over 11 days.”
The railway line near Pandy, which was the second worst hit area, was repaired within 36 hours as rail machinery was quickly redeployed from a nearby Network Rail worksite. Over 500 tonnes of ballast was washed away by the rising river and seriously destabilised the railway track. It was the most severe rail incident to happen in the area in 20 years.
“At Vineyard Farm near Pandy there were numerous washouts with nearly 500 tonnes of ballast being washed away,” Andrew continued. “This caused rows of sleepers to be exposed and dangerously destabilised the track. Equipment, including two ballast trains and a tamper, was quickly redeployed from another work site to help repair the track. The line reopened after 36hours of work.
Andrew explained that, due to the flooding, access routes were limited meaning the teams had to receive help from the local community.
“Most of the roads were flooded, especially at Pandy and the A465 being closed for a large part of the weekend exacerbated the situation. The local farmer was particularly helpful and we could not have returned the track so quickly without his help.”
Simon Pickering from Passenger Focus welcomed the effort to return services promptly and minimise disruption to passengers. “Passengers accept that these problems were caused by severe weather and needed extensive engineering work to repair. However, passengers much prefer traveling on trains to bus replacement services, so it is very important that such work has been undertaken as quickly as possible.”
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