Travel Alert: Rail disruption set to make it a miserable commute for thousands

THOUSANDS of West Midlands commuters face a miserable journey home after a major incident at Birmingham International brought chaos to the region’s railways.

All train operators have delayed or cancelled services throughout the day, while others are having to operate replacement bus services between Coventry and Birmingham New Street owing to the problems.

The problems were caused by damage to overhead power cables at Birmingham International when an empty London Midland train was involved in an incident earlier today. The incident resulted in severe damage to overhead power cables at the Birmingham International station, which serves both the NEC and Birmingham Airport.

The problems affected routes to London, Edinburgh, Manchester, North Wales and Southampton with trains subject to long delays.

It is thought the repairs will not be carried out until 8pm at the earliest.

Currently, CrossCountry has replacement bus services operating between Coventry and Birmingham New Street, as does London Midland, which also has buses operating between Rugby and Coventry and between Rugby and Northampton. It said tickets were being accepted on Virgin Trains, Chiltern Trains, Cross Country, East Midlands Trains and London Underground services.

There are cancellations on Virgin Trains West Coast between Birmingham New Street and London Euston and services are being diverted via Stafford. Tickets are being accepted on Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern Railway and Cross Country services.

Delays are still said to be severe across the whole region.

Birmingham Airport has also warned passengers to leave more time to make their flights.

Football supporters making their way to this evening’s Championship games have also been warned of delays.

It is the second day in succession that travel has been disrupted in the West Midlands; only yesterday the problems were restricted to the motorway network.

However, motorists thinking they may have it easier have been warned of severe delays on the M6 northbound out of Birmingham because of an earlier accident.

There is slow traffic on the M6 northbound between junctions 8 (the M5 turn-off) and 9 (Wednesbury) because of the earlier accident.

This is having a knock-on effect with queues stretching back to Spaghetti Junction.

This has added to delays on the A38 Aston Expressway leaving the city and also for traffic heading north on the M5 trying to join the M6.