Railway reopens after Manchester burst water main damage repaired

Monday 5 Sep 2022

Railway reopens after Manchester burst water main damage repaired

Region & Route:: North West & Central; | North West & Central: North West

Rail passengers are being thanked for their patience after a burst water main at Audenshaw in east Manchester caused disruption to trains for five days.

Thousands of gallons of water flooded the railway between Fairfield and Ashburys stations after a pipe operated by water company United Utilities ruptured in the early hours of Thursday 2 September.

Since then Network Rail teams have been working around the clock to repair flood damage to more than three miles of track.

This includes fixing washed away mortar inside Bessemer Street railway bridge, some areas of track where sinkholes had appeared, and also repairs to electric signalling equipment which became submerged.

This afternoon (Monday 6 September) the railway has reopened to passengers.

People are being advised to check National Rail Enquiries at www.nationalrail.co.uk before they travel while services return to the normal timetable.

Paul Owen, Network Rail’s North West route operations manager, said: “I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we worked tirelessly to get the railway back up and running after it was damaged by the burst water main at Audenshaw. We’ll continue to support United Utilities as they work to repair their pipe beside our tracks over the coming days.

“With over three miles of track submerged by fast flowing water it was essential we inspected everything thoroughly and made the necessary repairs before we could reopen the line so trains could run safely again. Thankfully that’s now complete but I’d remind people to check National Rail Enquiries as there may still be knock-on delays today while trains return to the usual timetable.”

A United Utilities spokesperson said: “Our teams have been working closely with Network Rail since the burst occurred on Thursday. We have made good progress and on Sunday night we finished setting up a safe access and working area around the burst site. That means our engineers are now able to continue and complete the repair work without any impact on rail services.”

Network Rail has released footage of the extent of the flooding and photographs of the repairs over the weekend.

For more updates people can follow the @NetworkRailMAN and @NationalRailEnq Twitter feeds.

Alternatively National Rail Enquiries at www.nationalrail.co.uk has the latest travel information.

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.