Media centre

Tuesday 4 Oct 2016

Cable fire set to impact services between Birmingham and London Marylebone throughout today

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

A major cable fire today on Kilburn railway viaduct has led to a complete cancellation of train services in and out of London Marylebone, Network Rail said.

The fire, reported at 4am, destroyed data and power cables taking out all the signalling - the railway equivalent of traffic lights - between Marylebone and Neasden Junction.

At 8am today Network Rail engineers were still waiting for fire fighters to finish damping down the blaze so they can get on to the viaduct to begin repairs, which are likely to take at least 24 hours.

Chiltern train passengers who had planned to travel from Marylebone today are advised is to use another station on another route. Chiltern tickets are being accepted by Virgin, London Midland, CrossCountry and GWR.

Martin Ball, area director for Network Rail, said: "Engineers will make the necessary repairs as soon as they are safely able to do so. I know how frustrating incidents like this are for travelling customers, who are at the front of our mind as we seek to fix this problem."

At this stage it is not clear what caused the fire.