A FOUR-TRACK railway near Doncaster has reopened today, after being closed for almost five months by a disastrous colliery landslip which demolished the infrastructure in February. Spoil from Hatfield Main colliery began to move, dragging the tracks and their foundations sideways and leaving heaps of tangled rails. There had been fears that the route would be closed until September.

Engineers had to deal with a million cubic metres of spoil at the site of the landslip, near Hatfield & Stainforth on the route between Doncaster and the east coast.

The route was formally declared to be operational at 05.00 this morning, but now almost 200 drivers will need to refresh their route knowledge before full services can return.

Even so, Northern Rail is able to run an hourly service between Doncaster and Goole/Scunthorpe from today, while First TransPennine Express is back to normal, with its services now restored between Cleethorpes and Doncaster/Sheffield/Manchester Airport and also between Hull/Brough/Selby and Leeds/Manchester. Northern is continuing to provide some rail replacement buses for now, but hopes to restore all its train services by the end of this month.

The reopening is good news for freight operators too, who had faced lengthy diversions via Lincoln or Brigg.

The incident also disrupted Network Rail's renewals programme on other lines in the area, so that the diversionary routes they provide could be kept open. A key project to refurbish the swing bridge at Selby was one of the victims, and the full job here will now be carried out in 2014, although there will be some 'intensive maintenance' over several weekends in October this year to keep the bridge in service for now.

Network Rail route managing director Phil Verster said: "The reopening of this line is a real cause for celebration. I thank passengers and our freight customers for their patience during this very difficult time.

“Engineers on site have worked tirelessly to complete the repair. Thanks are also due to the planning and support teams throughout the rail industry who have successfully delivered such a complex project.”

Northern Rail and First TransPennine Express added: “The scale and complexity of the engineering project are unprecedented and the resumption of passenger services is credit to the professionalism and expertise of Network Rail. As a rail industry we have worked hard to make sure that customers have had all the correct information and the disruption has been minimised.

"We would like to thank customers for their patience and understanding and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that a full service is restored as soon as possible."

The story is not quite over. Engineers are likely to stay on the site until the end of the year so that they can keep a careful eye on the rogue spoil heap, as well as the railway they have restored.