Media centre

Wednesday 22 Jun 2016

Railway between Manchester and Buxton expected to reopen this weekend

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

Emergency work to repair the railway between Buxton and Hazel Grove is due to be completed this week so train services can resume on Saturday.

Around 6,000 tonnes of material was dislodged following heavy rain on Sunday and Monday of last week (12 and 13 June) when about two inches of rain fell in less than two hours.

In order to reopen the railway, Network Rail’s orange army has worked quickly and safely over the last week to repair the damage and minimise the impact to passengers. The work has involved rebuilding a section of embankment and removing track and ballast – the stone which provides the foundation of the railway – near Middlewood station.

Terry Strickland, area director for Network Rail said: “The orange army has completed a large amount of work and the railway is due to reopen once again on Saturday morning. The heavy rain that we experienced at the beginning of last week caused a significant amount of damage that required extensive repairs.

“The landslip and wash away of material meant that it was impossible to run trains through the area and a temporary closure of the line was unavoidable. We have worked closely with Northern to keep disruption to the public to a minimum and I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carried out these essential repairs.”

Alex Hynes, Managing Director for Northern said: “As an operator, we regularly deal with exceptional weather conditions such as heavy rain which unfortunately can cause disruption for our customers. The good news is we are able to start running services again from Saturday following the completion of a mammoth engineering task by Network Rail. We would like to thank our customers for their continued patience.”

While the work is completed Northern is operating an hourly train service in both directions between Buxton and Furness Vale and rail replacement transport between Furness Vale and Hazel Grove.

There will also be rail replacement transport between Furness Vale and New Mills Central to connect into services into Manchester. East Midlands Trains will call additionally at Hazel Grove in both directions.