RAIL staff were snowed under with the hard work of keeping services running amid the wintry weather at the start of the month.

Workers along the Cambrian Line cleared dozens of lines of heavy snowfall from Thursday until Sunday, removed dozens of fallen trees, leading to heavy disruption and cancelled services.

The weather got so bad that an old London Transport Routemaster bus was pressed into service to ferry passengers between Shrewsbury, Aberystwyth and Pwllheli.

In Machynlleth, the Network Rail team worked all day on Friday to remove wind-blown trees on the Line at Llandre, and were out again on Saturday clearing 25 fallen trees on the Dyfi junction to Pwllheli line.

The team also ensured that access to Machynlleth station was clear and safe for passengers for when services resumed on Monday.

On the Cambrian line, where rail services were severely reduced over Thursday and Friday, replacement buses were thin on the ground.

But one bus that was dusted off and pressed into service was an old London Transport Routemaster owned by Christopher Boulter, a road transport coordinator for Arriva and a member of the passenger panel.

“Some of the ‘normal’ vehicles apparently wouldn’t start in the extreme cold but this young lady, of a mere 55 years old, was used to get Arriva passengers home rather than leave them frozen,” he said.

The bus was used to convey passengers from Shrewsbury on the Cambrian line route.

Across multiple stations, staff pitched in to shovel tonnes of snow from platforms and car parks.

Many who couldn’t reach their normal workplace put themselves forward to help.

Countless bags of grit were poured onto public areas to keep slips and trips to a minimum.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition on Wednesday