Trains between Hereford and Shrewsbury cancelled as track work overruns
- Published
A reduced service is expected to start on Saturday
No trains are running between Shrewsbury and Hereford after track maintenance work overran.
The line has been closed for engineering works through the Dinmore tunnel, but services were set to resume on Friday.
However, Transport for Wales (TfW) said work had overrun and advised people to only travel if "essential" as there was a limited rail replacement service.
Network Rail said it was because some machinery broke down on Thursday night.
However, it told the BBC it had sourced alternative machinery and expected a reduced rail service would be running from Saturday between the two locations.
The organisation, which looks after the rail infrastructure, said work had been taking place for nine days to renew track and ballast inside the 170-year-old tunnel.
Dean Shaw from Network Rail said the reduced service - about one train an hour - had always been planned for a further week while more work was carried out.
Although Friday was meant to see a reduced train service, he said the machinery broke down "four hours away from finishing the work", meaning teams were unable to get a replacement at such short notice.
'Hugely disruptive'
TfW advised passengers to seek alternative routes on Friday and said other operators were accepting tickets, including Cross Country, West Midlands Railway and Great Western Railway.
"We really appreciate that it is hugely disruptive, particularly when there is such short notice for the railway not to be running as they would expect and of course people today would have been going to school, university, work, hospital appointments and seeing friends, social occasions et cetera," Mr Shaw said.
Network Rail and TfW had been working "really frantically" to open the railway as soon as possible, he added.
The work is due to be completed before Saturday, but Mr Shaw advised people to "check before you travel".
"The expectation as it stands is trains will be running, albeit reduced," he said.
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