Media centre

Monday 12 Feb 2024

Passengers urged to check before travelling between Birmingham and London as work continues on landslip

Region & Route:

North West & Central: West Coast Mainline South

Passengers travelling on the West Coast Main Line between Birmingham and London are being urged to check their journeys on Tuesday due to disruption caused by a landslip near Rugby. 

Following the closure of one of the two tracks which connect Coventry to Rugby, both lines will close on Monday (12 February) evening to allow safe work on the landslip to continue. Lines are not due to open until the afternoon of Tuesday (13 February). 

Engineers have been on site clearing vegetation, surveying the embankment and examining the landslip ahead of removing soil when both lines are closed tonight.   

Whilst both tracks between Coventry and Rugby are closed, passengers should consider using alternative routes where possible or expect longer journeys through rail replacement transport. The advice is to check with train operators and at www.nationalrail.co.uk before starting journeys.  

London Northwestern Railway (LNR) services between Birmingham and London Euston will run between Birmingham-Coventry and Northampton-London Euston only, with half-hourly rail replacement transport running between Coventry and Northampton. 

Customers travelling with Avanti West Coast are advised that tickets are being accepted on LNR trains on any reasonable routes, and on CrossCountry Trains between Coventry and Stafford. Tickets will also be accepted on Chiltern Trains between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone; CrossCountry Trains between Birmingham New Street and Reading and Great Western Railway trains between Reading and London Paddington. 

Phil Barnes, operations director for Network Rail, said: “Network Rail engineers have been removing vegetation from the embankment to allow better assessment of the landslip near Rugby.  

“A plan is now in place to remove soil before checking the track to allow services to run. To do this safely, we are closing both lines overnight on Monday (12 February) and Tuesday (13 February) morning. We are working to reopen both lines on Tuesday afternoon.  

“Our team is working around the clock to get trains running again as soon as we can, and we are sorry for the disruption to journeys this is causing. 

"We advise passengers to check www.nationalrail.co.uk or with their train operator for the latest travel advice.” 

Jonny Wiseman, LNR customer experience director, said: “I would like to thank our customers for their continued patience while this important safety work is completed. 

“Customers travelling between Birmingham New Street and London Euston on Tuesday should continue to check their journeys before setting out and consider using alternative routes if possible.” 

Dave Whitehouse, safety and security director at Avanti West Coast, said: “The landslip between Rugby and Coventry means our services in both directions between the West Midlands and London Euston are unable to operate as normal while Network Rail complete the emergency repairs.

Throughout the day Network have been undertaking work to repair the site , the works will continue until tomorrow afternoon during this time will be continuing to work with industry partners to ensure the impact to our customers is minimised."

The main advice to our customers is to plan ahead before you leave, check before your travel and expect longer journey times. We would like to thank our customers for their patience at this time.”

Train services are expected to be subject to diversion, amendment or cancellation on Tuesday 13 February. Latest travel advice can be found at www.nationalrail.co.uk