Continued rail disruption due to damaged wires

Continued disruption is expected for some rail passengers travelling through Birmingham New Street, as people were advised to allow plenty of time for their journeys.

It comes after damaged electrical wires meant some lines in and out of the station were blocked on Wednesday.

The incident was first reported just before 14:00 BST, with delays and cancellations to services continued into the evening.

Most services were running normally on Thursday morning, bosses said, but no trains were able to run between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley (Cross City North line) and rail replacement buses were in operation.

A spokesperson for West Midlands Railway said this would be the case "until further notice" while engineers worked to carry out repairs.

The wires were damaged between New Street and Water Orton in Warwickshire, according to post on X by Transport for West Midlands.

On Wednesday, Birmingham New Street posted on X that extra staff had been drafted in to help passengers.

A post on Network Rail's New Street X account, showed a photo of the damage, with loose cables hanging from a metal gantry.

New Street is the busiest railway station outside of London and the damage was affecting services for many operators, National Rail said.

Services running from or through New Street to cities including London, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff were among those affected, as well as many services within the West Midlands.

Passengers were warned their trains could be cancelled, delayed by up to three hours or not run for their full route.

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