Cable damage causes major rail delays in Birmingham

Thousands of people using train services in Birmingham and the West Midlands faced major delays after overhead power cables came down.

Network Rail said a section of cabling between Birmingham New Street and Smethwick came down at about 12:00 GMT.

Services calling at Birmingham New Street faced delays of up to 30 minutes and trains had to queue for platforms.

All lines were reopened at about 20:00 GMT after engineers repaired the problem, the company said.

A spokesperson for London Midland said that the cable problem was "an issue with the infrastructure and not weather related."