Widespread flooding and landslips cause delays, damage and line closures across the rail network.
STORM Christoph brought chaos to the UK’s rail network from January 20-22, causing flooding and landslips.
Heavy rain flooded the tracks at Rotherham Central, a landslip at Ingatestone forced Network Rail to introduce single line working between Colchester and Shenfield, and routes in Wales and the North West were either closed or heavily disrupted because of high water levels.
Speed restrictions were introduced on the West Coast Main Line, and on routes in
Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. A section of the WCML between Crewe and Warrington was also closed after a tractor driver dumped what was believed to be rainwater into Hartford station car park from a tanker (see page 19).
The situation across northern England was exacerbated because ground was already saturated from sustained heavy rain.
Because fast-moving floodwater can wash ballast away, NR used high-volume pumps to clear floodwater in the North West, enabling its teams to carry out safety inspections.
After the waters receded, NR’s air operations team was able to survey the railway, with inspections showing that while some lines had been submerged, there was little or no lasting damage.
NR North West Route Director Phil James said: “We invest tens of millions of pounds making the railway more robust so it can cope when extreme weather events like this happen. It seems this preparation work on the ground has paid off - proven by helicopter inspections and other aerial photos taken by drones in recent days.”
Rotherham Central was closed after the River Don burst its banks on January 20. NR had already shut the station before the waters rose. Both heavy rail and tramtrains were affected by the floods.
On the Great Eastern Main Line, single line working was introduced after an embankment carrying the twin-track railway south of Colchester became unstable, causing a dip in the tracks on the Down line. This forced a reduced timetable that was still in place on January 29.
Wales was also hit by the storm, with flooding and debris affecting the railway.
NR required the services of rope-teams to clear debris at Lydney, owing to the hard-toreach location of a landslip. The engineers had to work their way down the embankment, removing
loose debris and earth using hand tools. The railway was closed for a week, with buses running north from Newport.
‘Significant damage’ at Knighton, on the Heart of Wales Line, closed the railway for more than a week while NR carried out urgent repairs to the track.
The line also remains closed further south between Llanelli and Llanwrtyd, following the Llangennech oil tanker fire last August. Transport for Wales expects the southern section to reopen on March 5.
The Cambrian Coast Line suffered damage from floodwater and debris between Dovey
Junction and Pwllheli, with trains unable to run until January 26 while NR completed repairs.
Further north, track was washed away at several locations on the Conwy Valley Line between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog, with buses still replacing trains more than a week later.