No trains west of Wolverhampton as staff illness leads to cancellations

Trains between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury are cancelled today

After a handful of trains rain between Wolverhampton and Wellington this morning, West Midlands Railway said that after the 8.54am departure from the Telford & Wrekin town towards the Black Country, road transport would operate “until further notice”.

Trains were already cancelled between Wellington and Shrewsbury.

Shortly after 9am, the train operator announced: “We have four coaches shuttling in both directions between Shrewsbury and Wellington and six serving all stations between Wellington and Wolverhampton.

“Rail replacements should operate between Wellington and Wolverhampton at least every 30 minutes in both directions.”

Transport for Wales is not running any trains between Shrewsbury and Birmingham International.

Network Rail confirmed that the reason for the cancellations was indeed staff sickness.

The company has had some long-term illness amongst signalling staff on the Shrewsbury line and contingency staff have been “filling in the gaps”.

They say they’re training more signallers for the line, but it is a long process, and they hope to be in a much better position for the summer.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Owing to emergency staff sickness, we have had to close Abbey Foregate signal box. This means that there are no trains running between Shrewsbury and Wellington stations.

“We are sorry for the disruption this has caused and we are working to try and reopen the signal box, and the route to and from Shrewsbury, later this evening. In the meantime we advise all passengers to check before they travel.

“The signal box at Abbey Foregate can only safely be operated by specially trained individuals.

We are currently undergoing an extensive recruitment and training programme to ensure we have more trained signallers at this signal box in the future.”

Other routes, such as Walsall to Birmingham via Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton to Birmingham and Birmingham to Crewe and Liverpool via Wolverhampton, remain unaffected, as do Avanti West Coast Trains from Wolverhampton to London and CrossCountry services.