Travel Alert: Nightmare commute after Bank Holiday break

COMMUTERS endured a nightmarish return to work after the Bank Holiday as a combination of accidents, rail problems and roadworks thwarted attempts to get to work on time.

On the trains, services were facing severe disruption in Birmingham after a line was blocked when a train hit an obstruction on the track at Stechford.

Delays of up to 15 minutes were reported on Arriva Trains, CrossCountry, London Midland and Virgin rains services between Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street.

London Midland was cancelling some services between Northampton and Birmingham and rail users were advised to check on delays prior to their journeys.

Also, due to a signalling problem at Wolverhampton all trains into Birmingham were subject to disruption.

O the roads, there was major disruption to the M6 around Birmingham this morning when an accident took out a lane southbound between Junction 6 (Spaghetti and the Aston Expressway) and Junction 5 (Castle Bromwich).

Congestion was reported to be stretching back to Junction 7 at Great Barr and as rush-hour approaches, is expected to get worse.

No problems were reported at Birmingham Airport, although yesterday the hub had experienced drama when a passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing.

A Flybe plane with 76 passengers on board aborted its flight to Manchester from Amsterdam when passengers noticed that a tyre on one of the undercarriage wheels had burst.

The aircraft was forced to circle the airport for around an hour yesterday afternoon to use up excess fuel so it could attempt an emergency landing with a reduced risk of fire.

Flights out of the airport were delayed until the emergency had been dealt with.

The plane ultimately landed safely and passengers were eventually transported to Manchester by bus.