Limited rail service begins running after landslip

The shuttle service from Shifnal began running on Monday morning

A limited rail service between Shropshire and Birmingham began running on Monday after a landslip closed the line.

West Midlands Railway said the temporary service would run from Shifnal, and would be unable to call at Shrewsbury, Wellington, Oakengates or Telford.

There would be 11 departures a day in either direction, the company said, and a replacement bus service along the affected route would also continue.

The landslip occurred on 8 March near Oakengates, with the line expected to be fully open again before Easter, it added.

West Midlands Railway said a replacement bus service would still also be in operation as repair work continued on the line

Andrew McGill from West Midlands Railway said the position of the landslip had "ruled out" any train movements between Shrewsbury and Telford, and the shuttle service could not travel into Telford Central due to the layout of the track.

But he said that the limited rail service from Shifnal would "hopefully take some pressure off" the replacement bus service.

On Wednesday, commuters using the bus service had complained there were not enough coaches to meet demand and passengers were being left behind.

West Midlands Railway said it had put on extra services to try to increase capacity.

"As the week went on, we saw far fewer instances of people having long waits or being left behind," said Mr McGill.

"Hopefully we are nearing the end where we can get that landslip repaired and people back on the trains where they want to be," he added.

Clare Crook has been finding other ways to get into work

One of the passengers on the temporary service, Clare Crook, said the period without any rail service had been "a bit tough", and she had found alternatives, including driving to Stafford to catch a train into Birmingham.

The extra traffic into Shifnal had not been as bad as she feared and she said: "I was a bit worried about it being a small village and then loads of people descending."

Despite the service being less frequent than usual, she said it was "better than nothing".

Another passenger, Robert Shrives, said he had been impressed by the bus replacement service up until this point and said he hoped there would soon be trains running between Wellington and Shrewsbury too.