OREANDA-NEWS. The Conwy Valley line will reopen tomorrow (Monday, 22 February), a full week ahead of schedule.

The line was severely damaged following flooding in late December. Network Rail engineers working with our contractor, Alun Griffiths Ltd, successfully overcame challenging conditions to repair over 100 separate locations of damage along the line from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Paul McMahon, route managing director at Network Rail Wales said: “We are delighted to be able to reopen the Conwy Valley line ahead of schedule.

“The line was ravaged by the flooding that December’s record rainfall brought with significant damage across multiple locations. Network Rail engineers and our contractor, Alun Griffiths Ltd, have done an amazing job of putting the railway back together.

“We know how important the line is for the local communities and we would like to thank them for their patience while we completed this essential repair work.’’

Train services will run to a reduced timetable on Monday morning following the completion of work to rebuild the damaged railway. Over 1200 tonnes of stone washed out by the flooding has been restored, bridges repaired, embankments secured, signalling cable replaced and debris cleared away.

Francis McGarry, Delivery Director for Network Rail added: “The scene that greeted us just after Christmas was incredible. Parts of the line were still underwater and where the water had receded it had taken much of the track-bed with it.”

“We started working immediately and put in place a programme to re-open by the end of February. It’s thanks to the amazing effort from all involved, working incredibly hard through challenging weather conditions, that we’ve been able to re-open the line for passengers ahead of schedule.”

Welcoming the reopening of the line, Lynne Milligan, Customer Services Director for Arriva Trains Wales said: “We are pleased that the Conwy Valley railway line has reopened ahead of schedule following major repair works to damaged track at several locations after the severe flooding in late December last year.

“From Monday 22 February we will be initially operating a special timetable, with nine services operated by train and the remaining three service operated by bus, but we hope to resume a full rail service soon.

“The railway line is a vital transport link to many of the communities in the Conwy Valley and we would like to thank our customers for their patience during this closure over the past two months.”

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 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing ?38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.