A £4m project to strengthen railway embankments has been completed following a train derailment at Watford Junction last year.

Services on the West Coast main line were severely affected in September 2016 after a train hit debris on the tracks due to a landslip being caused by torrential rain by the entrance of the Hunton Bridge tunnel.

The 6:19am service from Milton Keynes to London Euston, which was full of passengers, partially derailed at around 07:00 and a train travelling in the opposite direction then clipped the derailed train.

No-one was injured and in just one weekend, Network Rail removed the two damaged trains, cleared the debris off the tracks and repaired the railway.

In order to clear and strengthen the embankment so to prevent future slips, £3.954m has been invested to stabilise the cutting over the past 14 months.

All vegetation was removed so that 1km of rock netting and soil matting could be installed on top of the 500 rock anchors which were embedded into the chalk face.

Gavin Evans, scheme project manager at Network Rail, said: “Passengers will have more reliable journeys through the Watford area thanks to this investment.

“The challenge was to work safely around the operational railway without impacting on journeys.

“A large proportion of the work took overnight and at weekends and the work we have done will protect the cutting for more than 60 years.”

Steve Helfet, London Midland’s head of West Coast Services said: “This is a great example of one railway working together to make much needed repairs and improvements.

“The work was done with minimal impact to our customers on one of the busiest stretches of railway in Europe.”