OREANDA-NEWS. Up to 6,000 tonnes of earth and material were dislodged and washed away after the flash floods during Sunday 12 and Monday 13 June when around two inches of rain fell in two hours.

Services resumed on Saturday morning meaning passengers are once again able to make their usual journeys through the area.

Network Rail’s orange army worked quickly and safely to repair the damage in less than two weeks, minimising the impact of the closure to passengers. The work 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: “After completing the emergency repairs, the railway though Middlewood reopened on Saturday morning. The heavy rain that we experienced two weeks ago caused a significant amount of damage that required extensive work. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carried out these essential repairs”.

Alex Hynes, managing director for Northern said: “We’re pleased to be once again running services between Buxton and Manchester following the completion of a mammoth engineering task by Network Rail. We would like to thank our customers for their continued patience”.

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain's railway - the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.65bn journeys by rail every year and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We employ 36,000 people across Britain and work round-the-clock, each and every day, to provide a safe, reliable railway.