Friday 29 Jun 2007
GETTING THE RAILWAY BACK ON TRACK
- Region & Route:
Freight trains through the West Midlands were on the move again last night as Network Rail reopened the Water Orton to Walsall route following a massive landslip at Bosty Lane in Aldridge. The incident occurred on June 15 on a day when the West Midlands suffered its worst flooding for many years. Network Rail engineers removed over 6,500 tonnes of rock and debris, rebuilt the cutting, drained the site and repaired the damaged track to enable the railway to reopen safely.
Notes to editors
The line reopened at 6pm yesterday evening The incident happened when there were no trains in the area No disruption was caused to passengers as the route is only used by freight services. The contractors working alongside Network Rail were: Birse, Mainland and W.A. Developments
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - North West & Central Region
0330 854 0100
NWCmediarelations@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk