Engineers worked flat out to repair cable damage

Train services were disrupted between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley after overhead power cables were damaged on the northern section of the Cross City line. Network Rail apologised to passengers yesterday afternoon as its engineers worked flat out to repair the 25,000-volt cables at Gravelly Hill. Around 1.7km of electric cable was damaged. The cause has not been revealed, but the scale of the repairs meant trains couldn’t run on the line for the rest of the day. West Midlands Railway provided rail replacement buses and tickets were also being accepted on some local bus routes. Services on the Cross City line south between New Street, Bromsgrove and Redditch were not affected.