Flooding on the main railway line through northern Powys caused three times as many track washouts than originally thought, Network Rail has confirmed.

Flood waters have finally receded on the Cambrian Line, allowing engineers to investigate the extent of the damage on the route in the wake of the floods that followed Storm Franklin through Powys last week.

Now Network Rail has confirmed that the floods caused 33 areas of "washout", where the track bed was washed away by the rising water.

Forecasts for when the damage will be repaired suggest that it will be a matter of weeks before the work is completed, but the rail infrastructure organisation has not yet been able to put a firm date on the completed work.

Chris Howchin, programme manager at Network Rail, said: “Now the flood water has receded, we’ve been able to fully assess the damage to the railway.

"Closer inspection has revealed a total of 33 washout areas - this is triple the number we first thought.

“Although we are still facing weather challenges, we can now begin our programme of work to recover the railway and fix the extensive damage left behind by Storm Franklin."

Mr Howchin added that new measures could also be installed in an effort to prevent the same problems arising again in the future.

"We are also considering options to further increase resilience measures at this location, to help combat the increase in extreme weather events being brought on by climate change," he said.

“Our teams will be working around the clock, over the next few weeks, so we can reopen the railway to passengers as quickly as possible with replacement transport available until then.”

Buses are currently replacing trains between Shrewsbury and Newtown, with rail services running from Newtown further west towards the coast.

Thousands of tonnes of material will be needed to allow the full programme of works to be carried out.

The timetable of replacement services can be found here.