The Sydney to Melbourne railway line has reopened after a freight train derailed and caused carnage north of Wagga earlier this week.
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Passenger and freight services had been blocked from the line since a goods train derailed in the early hours of Thursday morning and damaged a section of track at Bomen.
One train driver suffered a laceration to the head and the other was unhurt as a result of the derailment.
Transport for NSW and the Australian Rail Track Corporation announced late on Friday afternoon that the line had reopened and the XPT leaving Sydney at 8.40pm travelling to Melbourne via Wagga would be the first train across.
"The ARTC has reopened the Melbourne to Sydney interstate line at 6pm this [Friday] evening, allowing services to resume where a northbound freight train derailed at Bomen, north of Wagga," an ARTC spokesperson said.
"Services running on the main line will be subject to temporary speed restrictions.
"The repair work to the passing lane will continue at various times during the coming weeks until completion.
Riverina MP and federal Transport Minister Michael McCormack said he had received a briefing on the incident.
He added he was unable to state how much of rail freight had been disrupted but said "a huge amount" normally passed through Bomen.
"Any accident there, we want to identify what went wrong and rectify it ever happening again but these do happen unfortunately ... we'll certainly find out the reason," Mr McCormack said.
NSW Office of Transport Safety Investigations chief executive Natalie Pelham said one of the agency's investigators had attended the derailment site at Bomen.
"The investigator examined the incident site including the track, locomotive and wagons as well as conducting interviews with train crew and operator representatives," Dr Pelham said.
"Further inquiries are being made to collect relevant information about possible causes of the incident."
Fire and Rescue NSW zone commander Stewart Alexander said hazardous materials workers remained on scene yesterday to monitor a fuel spillage.
"Our role was making sure that any diesel, which was the main hazard there as it was leaking from one of the locomotives, was collected and put into our recovery bins," he said.
"We're out there making sure that we could respond to any other hazard that might occur.
"Fortunately, that did not happen and it has been a fairly smooth operation so far."
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