By Ralph Barnett, Stefan Morkis and Philip Murray

THE FLOOD-HIT east coast rail line reopened yesterday as the clean up continued in Dundee after it was hit by over a million tons of rain in just 15 minutes on Thursday.

Businesses and residents in the city now face a combined bill that could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds to repair the damage after the city centre was flooded by torrential rain on Thursday.

However massive disruption to the rail line between Dundee and Aberdeen is finally over after frantic efforts to reopen the flood-hit track.

The line reopened yesterday afternoon at 4.40pm after being closed for almost 24 hours in the wake of monsoon-like rain.

Although all parts of the region’s transport infrastructure were affected by the floods, train travel was especially badly hit.

A landslide near Stonehaven and severe flooding at Inverkeilor—which submerged the track under more than five feet of water—left Network Rail engineers facing a huge clear-up.

Their task was further hindered by localised torrential showers throughout Friday.

But despite those problems a round-the-clock pumping operation finally cleared the last of the flood waters in time for the evening rush hour yesterday, with the full restoration of services coming soon afterwards at 6pm.

Network Rail bosses have hailed the Herculean efforts of their workers in restoring rail services so quickly.

“A 150-foot section of track at Inverkeilor was completely under water—to a depth of five feet in the worst-affected areas—and the situation was not being helped by the fact that the rain continued to fall for much of the day,” said a spokesperson.

“Our engineers began pumping operations but the fact that there was still water coming on to the track from the adjacent fields meant that this was not a straightforward process.”

David Simpson, route director for Network Rail in Scotland, added, “Our engineers have done a tremendous job in tackling these incidents, which were caused by extremely heavy rainfall in the north east on Thursday.

“We have also been working closely with First ScotRail to minimise disruption and get train services back on track as quickly as possible,” he said.

Chief among their earlier efforts to limit disruption was the introduction of bus services along the route between Aberdeen and Dundee.

They later resumed south-bound rail services from Arbroath and Carnoustie before finally restoring full operations.

And while they worked hard to limit the rain’s impact, some were not impressed by the lack of information which confronted passengers in the immediate aftermath of the flooding and landslide.

Alberto Costa the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Angus has expressed deep concern at the way ScotRail handled the disruption.

He was left stranded on Thursday along with hundreds of other commuters at Aberdeen railway station, when he was returning home to Montrose.

He said, “First ScotRail did not appear to have any contingency plan for this type of major disruption.

“There were hundreds of people stranded at Aberdeen train station at rush hour with no proper information about alternative transport.

“We were not told how long it might take until services resumed.

“It took First ScotRail a couple of hours to organise minimal alternative transport for some passengers.”

When he had inquired whether there would be any buses arranged at some point for Montrose, he said the duty manager had no idea and walked away in apparent confusion.

He said, “The landslide is patently not First ScotRail’s fault, but passengers expect appropriate contingency operations when things go wrong.

“This situation shows that First ScotRail needs to address its contingency policy and it is for this reason that I have written to ScotRail seeking assurances, on behalf of commuters, that a repeat of this chaos will be avoided in future,” he added.

Mr Costa took the initiative of inviting other Montrose bound passengers to share a large taxi and spread the cost. He continued, “It’s a pity ScotRail did not have the initiative to do this but left their stranded passengers to make their own arrangements.”

Meanwhile firefighters spent the entire day attempting to pump out water from flooded premises around Dundee—some under as much as four feet of water—and were still working 24 hours after the downpour began.

Figures released by the Scottish Crop Research Institute yesterday showed that an estimated 1.16 million tons of rain fell on Dundee in a quarter of an hour spell just after 5pm on Thursday.

The downpour, coupled with an overflowing drainage system, brought the city centre to a standstill.

More than 100 properties are thought to have been damaged and firefighters incident commander Stewart Edgar described it as “the worst flooding we have seen in years.”

The Seagate area was worst-hit with many bars and other businesses facing huge bills to replace lost stock.

Gus Welsh, landlord of Tickety Boo’s on the corner of Seagate and Commercial Street, said it would cost him thousands of pounds alone.

“The water was up to the top of the kegs of beer, but there was nothing you could do,” he said.

“Staff are losing shifts and we’ll have to pay them, and we’ll have to pay for all the damage until the insurance company pays out.”

The Capitol Bar was also forced to close and Dundee businessman Harry Bradley, who runs pubs The Broadway Bar, The Bush and The Bay Horse was another publican facing a hefty repair bill.

“We had about four or five feet of water in the Broadway and there was easily the same amount in the Bush as well,” he said.

“The stock is the big problem as obviously the water that came in wasn’t the cleanest and we wouldn’t dream of trying to sell it. We’ll have to scrap it all.”

Karen Smith, owner of Karen Smith Hair Studio on Commercial Street, added, “I’ve lost all my stock. I’m depressed and angry, but there’s just nothing I can do.”

The car park underneath The Bond at 81 Seagate was also badly flooded, with several cars marooned.

Resident Carolyn Almond-Roots said, “I was quite lucky because by the time I got back I couldn’t get my car in. When people opened up their boots today water came pouring out so they were obviously completely flooded.”

Residents’ association chairwoman Isabel Sword said the city council and Scottish Water should take action to improve the Seagate’s drainage system.

“The building hasn’t been damaged but I’m not sure exactly how many cars were in there,” she said.

“The flooding happens every time there’s a high tide—something definitely does need to be done.”

Dundee West MP Jim McGovern said he was concerned that the drainage system in the Seagate had failed so badly.

He said, “I spoke to a number of business owners and am deeply concerned with the situation.

“The recurring theme from everyone seemed to be that whilst they felt they were paying high water charges they were still left with inadequate drainage.

“I have therefore written today to Richard Ackroyd, chief executive of Scottish Water, to ask him what if anything can be done to prevent a repeat of what happened to these businesses on Thursday.”