By Justin Franz 

Almost three weeks after it was devastated by flooding, Vermont Rail System’s Green Mountain Railroad resumed regular operations on Monday. 

On July 10, a massive rain storm that dumped as much as nine inches of rain in parts of Vermont caused dozens of washouts along VRS lines. The GMRC between Rutland and Bellows Falls and the Washington County Railroad near Montpelier took the brunt of the damage, although some other routes were also impacted. 

With funding from the State of Vermont and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), VRS crews were able to reopen the GMRC in 19 days, said VRS President Selden Houghton. The tracks were restored on Saturday and the first train ran Monday morning. 

“We’re doing a lot better today than we were three weeks ago,” Houghton told Railfan & Railroad on Monday. “This was a team effort and a lot of people worked a lot of long hours away from home to get this done.”

Two of the biggest washouts were on the GMRC at Ludlow and East Wallingford, but there were also over a dozen smaller washouts to deal with. Repairs also had to be made to two bridge abutments along the line, Houghton said. 

Houghton said Monday that work was continuing on the WACR and that service on that line was expected to resume before the end of the week.