Trains are running through Dawlish again this morning following the completion of a mammoth eight-week repair job.
A stretch of the Great Western Main Line collapsed into the sea during an extreme storm in Devon in early February.
Up to 300 engineers, led by Network Rail and contractor Bam Nuttall, have been carrying out heavy civils work in the area.
The project was complicated in March when about 20,000 tonnes of the cliff face in nearby Teignmouth sheared away and had to be cleared.
Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said: “Our army of engineers has done an amazing job of putting back together a railway that was ravaged by the elements.
“They have overcome every obstacle thrown at them, winning many battles along the way to restore this critical piece of the network, ahead of schedule, and in time for the Easter holidays.”
Work carried out to restore the railway has included:
Rebuilding and fortifying the breach with more than 6,000 tonnes of concrete and 150 tonnes of steel
Removing 25,000 tonnes of collapsed cliff at Teignmouth using high pressure water canon, fire hoses, helicopter-borne water bombs, specialist roped access team and ‘spider’ excavators
Repairing dozens of other sites along a four-mile stretch of coastal railway, clearing hundred of tonnes of debris and repairing over 600m of parapet wall
Rebuilding half of Dawlish station with a new platform, new canopy and repainting
Installing over 13 miles of new cables, designing and installed a new temporary signalling system and replacing over 700m of track and ballast