A MAJOR railway route faced travel chaos after a specialised flood lagoon failed to protect the tracks in Chipping Sodbury from flooding.
The line between Bristol Parkway and Swindon was closed for eight days after closing on New Year's Eve due to the deluge.
The route was eventually reopened on Monday, January 8, Network Rail said.
The large lagoon - which can hold up to 11 million litres of water - was installed in 2018 as part of a £5 million flood alleviation scheme.
It was designed to improve the resilience of the section of railway line in Chipping Sodbury which had been prone to flooding.
However, according to Network Rail, they could not safely empty the lagoon and reduce water on the tracks due to concerns of flooding nearby properties.
Julie Gregory, Climate Change Task Force, Network Rail said: “The lagoon has reduced the amount of times that the line is closed.
“It has prevented flooding on some occasions and reduced the amount of time that the line was closed.
“However with climate change, wetter winters and more extreme rainfall we do need to do more.
“We’re working with the Environment Agency and others to look at what our options are to prevent this and to protect the resilience of this railway into the future.”
She added: “The large lagoon that we’ve built holds 11 million litres of water.
“And we can pump that out at a rate of 300 litres a second, to the watercourses when they’re low enough.
“During times when there’s widespread flood warnings across the country, we can’t pump that water out because there would be a risk of flooding to local properties.
“So we’re working with the Environment Agency to make sure that we pump it out when it is safe to do so for those properties.
“That means that the lagoon stays full for longer and we can’t open the railway until we’ve been able to clear the line of the flood water.”
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