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Wensleydale Railway to the rescue as floods decimate Yorkshire

After local roads became impassable, the line operated free emergency services between Leyburn and Bedale on Tuesday, September 25.

Martin Baggaley, practice manager at the Glebe House Surgery, in Bedale, got the train back home to Leyburn after spending the previous night stuck in Bedale when he was forced to abandon his car.

He was quoted in the Northern Echo as saying: “The railway has been a huge life-saver for me because I just wanted to get home. The staff were so helpful and couldn’t do enough for us.”

The A684 between Bedale and Leyburn became impassable after deep pools of water formed.

Alternative roads were also blocked.

Railway general manager Nigel Park said: “At first we thought we wouldn’t be able to run trains, but we took a train up to have a look and found that it was okay once we had removed some gravel from some of the crossings.

“We decided that running an emergency service was a sensible thing to do.”

The railway initially planned to run only one service, but a later journey was scheduled after staff received more calls for help from the public.