The recent Storm Claudia caused significant damage to the Marches Line between Newport and Hereford.

The storm was fast and intense, causing a track washout at a weak point near Abergavenny.

The area experienced the largest flooding event ever recorded in this section, with the ballast being completely washed away near a level crossing at Pandy.

The rails were left suspended over a two-metre void.

As a result, the section of the line was closed; however, passenger and freight services will resume today (18th November), following a series of repairs.

Engineers have worked around the clock to rectify the issues caused, bringing in specialist materials and equipment to carry out the urgent work.

This work included installing 600 tonnes of ballast, transported by 30 articulated lorries. They had four rail-road cranes, two tamping machines and over 100 staff working on the repairs.

While the damage caused was significant, it could have been much worse had resilience work not been carried out in 2021. This work saw 8,000 tonnes of rock armour installed along numerous sections of the line,

If there had been no investment, the line would have likely been closed for weeks. The £4 million investment instead only saw damage to the weak point – the crossing, and some of the large boulders moved purely from the force of the water.

“Our teams have worked methodically and safely to fix the damage caused by the flooding near Pandy level crossing in just 60 hours”

“Before our resilience work and the rock armour being placed, this would have taken potentially four weeks to complete.

“We’ve used 600 tonnes of ballast and around 100 people in this recovery operation.

“A number of our people weren’t rostered to work this weekend but came in voluntarily to help, and I’m proud of their efforts and what we’ve managed to achieve.

“I would like to thank our passengers and freight customers for their patience during this time.”

Nick Millington, Route Director for Network Rail Wales and Borders.