Winds cause rail problems as trees come down on lines

Passengers were transferred to another train

Rail engineers spent hours on Thursday dealing with disruption to a number of train services around Birmingham caused by high winds.

The West Midlands was hit by gusts of up to 60 miles an hour.

On the Cross City North rail line, a tree fell on to overhead power lines and came to rest on a train.

Passengers had to be moved onto another train but Network Rail said no-one was hurt in the incident which happened between Sutton Coldfield and Four Oaks.

Disruption

It led to the London Midland service between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley being suspended at about 11:30 GMT.

The operator put on replacement buses between Sutton Coldfield and Lichfield but the service was operating fully again by Thursday evening.

"We apologise for the disruption but the weather has been severe," said a spokesman.

Network Rail spokesman Keith Lumley said passengers were transferred to a second train that had also had to stop because of the fallen tree.

Work took place throughout the afternoon to clear the tree and sort out the overhead lines.

Engineers also had to deal with problems at Berkswell because of a branch on overhead lines.

Earlier, the line between Stratford-upon-Avon and Birmingham Snow Hill was closed for 40 minutes after a driver reported a tree on the line at Wood End station, between Stratford-upon-Avon and Shirley.

In another incident, a tree was blown on to the line near Stourbridge Junction causing morning rush hour delays.