Media centre

Friday 9 Aug 2019

Sorry to passengers affected by recent disruption on the West Coast main line

Region & Route:

North West & Central

Network Rail is apologising to passengers who have been impacted by recent issues with signals and overhead power lines on the West Coast main line.

Journeys between Birmingham and Coventry are expected to be disrupted for the rest of today (Friday) after 40 metres of overhead lines were damaged in a tunnel near Tile Hill.

Journeys across the North West & Central Region - which runs from London Euston and Marylebone to Scotland via the West Midlands and North West - were affected on Thursday afternoon by a signal failure outside of Euston and damaged overhead power lines near Stone.

David Golding, interim route managing director, said: “I'm sorry to passengers whose journeys have been impacted by the problems on our network yesterday evening and this morning.

“We are doing all we can to repair up to 40m of damaged overhead power lines through Beechwood Tunnel between Birmingham and Coventry. This is taking some time and there is likely to be disruption for the rest of today.

“Yesterday we lost all power to signals at Euston which meant we could not move trains in or out of the station. Combined with overhead lines coming down in Stone, Staffordshire, this made for miserable journeys for many.

“I would ask passengers to check with their train operator to find out the latest travel information."

Passengers are also being urged to check before they travel as forecasted strong winds and heavy rain could also impact journeys into the weekend.

Network Rail will continue to closely monitor the weather and have teams on hand to deal with any issues which may arise such as localised flooding and fallen trees.

Passengers can plan they journeys and check before they travel at www.nationalrail.co.uk.