Media centre

Thursday 10 Nov 2005

NORMAL SERVICE RESUMES THROUGH RUGELEY

Region & Route:

Rail services returned to normal between Walsall and Stafford and on the West Coast Main Line after Network Rail engineers completed repairs to a signalling systems room damaged in the Rugeley arson attack Thursday 3 November. Peter Leppard, Area General Manager for Network Rail said: “Last week’s attack was a despicable act of vandalism, which has caused prolonged delays and inconvenience for the thousands of passengers who rely on rail services along this route. I pay tribute to our engineers who have been working round the clock to ensure services can return fully today”. The signalling systems room, which controls signalling equipment was destroyed in last week’s arson attack, knocking out the signalling along West Coast Mainline and between Stafford and Hednesford. Network Rail engineers made running repairs immediately following the attack to enable a reduced service to run throughout last week, final repairs and testing of the new signalling equipment were completed last night. Peter Leppard continued: “As well as costing the rail industry thousands of pounds which would otherwise be invested in improving the network, this incident has also diverted our staff away from other important tasks throughout the West Midlands. We will continue to work with the British Transport Police and hope the offer of the £50,000 reward will help uncover vital evidence to bring these criminals to justice.”