Media centre

Tuesday 6 Oct 2009

RAIL SERVICES IN SOUTH WALES BACK TO NORMAL

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Train services between Bristol – Newport and Gloucester – Newport are now back to normal. 

The disruption was caused by a loss of signalling in the area as rail equipment was found severely damaged.  This incident is now being treated as vandalism and Network Rail is working with the police to investigate the matter.

As a result of the incident, train services were delayed by nearly 7,000 minutes and 42 train services, including freight, travelling between England (e.g. Paddington, Gloucester, Cheltenham Spa, Bristol, Portsmouth Harbour and Birmingham New Street) and south Wales (e.g. Cardiff, Newport, Maestag and Swansea) were either cancelled or diverted.

Mark Langman, area general manager, Network Rail said: “This looks like a case of attempted cable theft.  Cable theft is a major issue on the railway, costing millions of pounds a year and causing unnecessary delay and disruption to passengers. Although, the circumstances of this incident are not yet clear, I would warn anyone tempted to trespass on the railway to think again.  It is not only a serious offence, it could also cost trespassers their lives.”

A spokesman for British Transport Police (BTP) said: “Officers from BTP are investigating reports that railway signalling cable was damaged near to Severn Tunnel Junction rail station in South Wales last night, Monday 5 October.  Enquiries are ongoing and anyone with any information about the incident is asked to contact British Transport Police on Freefone 0800 40 50 40, quoting incident log 593 of 05/10/09, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.” 

The incident happened at 9.30pm last night and engineers have been working round the clock to fix the problem since it happened. Passenger trains from Bristol to Newport resumed to normal this morning and services to Newport via Gloucester resumed at around 11.30am.