Media centre

Tuesday 4 Oct 2005

NORMAL SERVICE RESUMES THROUGH SMALL HEATH

Region & Route:

Rail services returned to normal between Birmingham Snow Hill, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon today after Network Rail engineers completed repairs to signalling equipment damaged in the Small Heath arson attack of Sunday 25 September. Peter Strachan, Route Director 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. Our signalling staff also did a magnificent job, standing out in all weathers for the last week to keep trains moving through Small Heath while repairs were carried out.” Six line-side location cabinets were destroyed in last week’s arson attack, knocking out the signalling along 20 miles of the railway line between Birmingham and Warwick. 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 over the weekend. Peter Strachan 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.”