Rail chaos on key Birmingham-London route following landslip

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Tens of hundreds of travellers are going through severely prolonged journeys because of a landslip between Rugby and Coventry.

Usually that is a particularly busy stretch of line, shared between intercity trains linking London with the West Midlands in addition to native and regional providers.

However Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway are unable to run trains from Birmingham in the direction of the capital on the same old route because of the landslip in a slicing.

Phil Barnes, operations director for Community Rail, stated: “Community Rail engineers are assessing the injury brought on by a landslip between Coventry and Rugby and are engaged on a plan to soundly reopen the affected monitor as quickly as attainable.

“With one of many two tracks on this space closed to trains, a diminished service is operating by way of the realm and we apologise for the disruption to journeys.”

London Northwestern is telling travellers: “As a result of a landslide between Coventry and Rugby the road is blocked and we unable to function providers by way of the realm.

“We anticipate this to final till finish of day Tuesday 13 February 2024.”

Avanti West Coast is operating some Birmingham-London trains on for much longer route.

A diversion f has been put in place that requires passengers from Birmingham to journey northwest away from London to Stafford, from the place trains are operating on the Trent Valley line, avoiding the landslip.

One Edinburgh-London practice ran usually so far as Wolverhampton, the place it reversed to Stafford after which took the diversionary line. It’s at the moment round one hour late.

Dave Whitehouse, security and safety director at Avanti West Coast, stated: “The landslip between Rugby and Coventry means our providers to London Euston are unable to function as regular whereas Community Rail full the emergency repairs.

“We’re working with Community Rail and different practice operators to make sure our clients are in a position to nonetheless journey to and from London whereas this work takes place over the following days.”

At London Euston station, different Avanti providers, together with to Manchester and Glasgow, have been cancelled because the influence of getting employees and rolling inventory out of place intensifies.

On Monday, tickets can be utilized on Chiltern Railways between Birmingham Moor Road and London Marylebone, or on the CrossCountry hyperlink from Birmingham New Road to Studying and Nice Western Railway from there to London Paddington.

Tuesday providers are more likely to be severely affected, with a chance of disruption extending into Wednesday.