Fire linked to cable theft causes delays for commuters

West Midlands Railway thanked passengers for their patience

Rail passengers are facing a third day of disruption, this time after suspected metal thieves caused signalling cables to catch fire.

Delays are expected throughout Wednesday, after traffic lights for trains between Shrewsbury and Telford were knocked out.

Passengers reported a crowd gathering at stations on the affected route, between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton.

Staff illness and a broken-down freight train led to cancellations previously.

Cabling that controls traffic lights for trains had been badly damaged by fire, Network Rail said

On Wednesday response teams dealt with the incident from about 03:00 BST.

Railway teams had found the concrete toughing which houses the cables alight and the fire service was then called, Network Rail said.

Rail replacement buses would run between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton, National Rail Enquiries said.

At first all services were stopped but limited trains were running at lunchtime, while engineers continued to make emergency repairs.

For some passengers, it was the third day without a service.

Twitter user @cellar999 said: "3rd Day in row that there are no trains into Shrewsbury from the Birmingham direction... Wednesday-Cables gone missing! This is an ongoing issue on this line-add in sickness of train crew and strikes."

Joshua Moreton said there was no clarity on if there were replacement bus services until it was too late

Joshua Moreton, who works for a PR company in London, had to pay for a taxi from Codsall to Wolverhampton to get a train to the capital, knowing he needed to reach Wolverhampton for 06:45.

"The communication was bad - there was no clarity on if there were replacement bus services until it was too late for me," he said.

"I think... [I] get on the first train of the day, so it's always a high-risk train anyway, 'cos... there is often not that many staff around and stuff to solve the issues at that sort of time in the morning."

Another passenger reported a crowd of people gathering at a station on the line, and added the replacement buses seemed to be going in one direction.

Network Rail said it was working closely with British Transport Police.

It urged people planning to go between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton to check National Rail Enquiries before setting off on their journey and apologised to passengers impacted.

Avanti West Coast, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Railway services were affected on Wednesday.

West Midlands Railway said it would like to thank passengers between Shrewsbury and Birmingham for their patience.