More misery for rail passengers
Updated on 05 January 2009
Rail passengers are enduring further misery as services are cancelled on key routes.
Virgin Trains scrapped one service in three between London and Birmingham and between London and Manchester on the West Coast Main Line following Sunday's overhead cable problem at Watford in Hertfordshire.
The problems come just days after the busy West Coast line was closed when a plane crashed into it in Little Haywood, near Stafford, at noon on Friday, killing married couple Nick and Emma O'Brien and pilot Alan Matthews.
Meanwhile in Scotland, Virgin is one of a number of companies affected by signalling problems in the Rutherglen area, causing some services to end at Motherwell rather than at Glasgow Central.
The situation also affects some services by ScotRail which is running a replacement bus service between Whifflet and Cambuslang.
In another disruption, CrossCountry and First Great Western services were delayed by signalling difficulties between Cholsey and Didcot Parkway in Oxfordshire and National Express East Anglia trains are not stopping at Colchester Town station in Essex due to another signalling problem.
Virgin Trains spokesman Jim Rowe said: "Following the plane crash and the problems at Watford, we have had to reduce the service. We are looking to run a fuller service from tomorrow, although we may be able to restore it all by later today."
This is the second new year running that passengers have had to contend with travel chaos on the West Coast line.
Last year extensive engineering work on the line at Rugby over-ran, as did work at two other sites, leading the Office of Rail Regulation to fine NR a record £14 million.
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