The photographs from Culcheth are a stark reminder that, when the rain decides to make a proper Lancashire-style entrance, it does not bother knocking. Severe flooding swamped the railway line on Wednesday, New Year’s Day, disrupting services between Manchester and Liverpool and leaving tracks under an extraordinary volume of water.
Thankfully, the water in Culcheth subsided enough for Network Rail teams to inspect and repair the line, allowing services to begin running again. That is the good news. The less cheerful footnote is that passengers using the southern Liverpool-to-Manchester route via Warrington Central were still being told to check before travelling, after overnight pumping work near Warrington West station.
TransPennine Express and Northern had advised customers not to travel while routes were blocked. Not exactly the sparkling start to the year anyone had ordered, particularly for people trying to get back to work, visit family or simply escape the annual New Year’s Day sofa coma.
Network Rail says its North West route received 45 Environment Agency flood alerts on New Year’s Day. Chris Pye, Network Rail’s North West route infrastructure director, said the flooding across Greater Manchester and Warrington was highly unusual, despite the region being well acquainted with wet weather. He added that millions are spent each year improving drainage at vulnerable sites.
That investment is welcome, obviously. But when a main railway through the area ends up resembling a particularly unhelpful boating lake, people are entitled to wonder whether drainage resilience is keeping pace with the weather we now routinely get. There is only so much patience passengers can be expected to produce, even if railway staff on the ground clearly deserve credit for getting stuck into the draining, repairs and inspections.
The important bit is that crews worked through difficult conditions to reopen the route safely, and passengers were thanked for their understanding. Culcheth may be used to a damp patch or two, but this was plainly far beyond the usual umbrella-and-muddy-shoes sort of rain.