After services on two key rail routes in Carlisle had been disrupted for seven weeks, since 6.00am yesterday morning, Wednesday, 7th December, direct trains are running again on the Tyne Valley line between Carlisle and Newcastle and the Settle to Carlisle line between Carlisle, Appleby and Skipton.

On Wednesday, 19th October, a train carrying powdered cement was derailed at Petteril Bridge junction, just outside Carlisle. Since then, Network Rail engineers have been working around the clock to restore services.

The derailment caused extensive damage to a Victorian-built railway bridge, railway lines, and signalling equipment. Over 25,000 hours of work went into restoring the railway so trains can run again.

Drone footage shows work taking place to restore services over the bridge.

Work to get the line open again included:

• recovering the locomotive and 11 of the 14 wagons involved in the derailment;
• using a giant vacuum to remove 80 tonnes of powdered cement from three wagons that needed recovery by crane;
• replacing 80 metres of damaged track;
• installing 400 metres of new cables for signals and points;
• replacing two points switches;
• pouring 125 tonnes of concrete into metal reinforcement cages used to repair the damaged bridge.

Mark Evans, Network Rail senior programme 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 severely damaged by the freight train derailment.

“This has been a very complex recovery and repair job. Now it’s complete this major railway junction is future-proofed and has been strengthened in the very rare event anything like this should happen again meaning more reliable journeys for passengers and freight for years to come.”

Kerry Peters, regional director at Northern, said: “We have been working very hard with Network Rail to reopen the railway at Petteril bridge following the freight train derailment in October.

“Now that work is complete, Northern services have resumed on both the Tyne Valley and Settle to Carlisle lines – and we have allocated extra advance purchase fares to welcome people back on-board. We’d like to thank our customers for being patient during this disruption and everyone involved in getting our passengers moving again.”