Disruption on Thursday 5 January
We are very sorry if you were caught up in the disruption affecting trains on the Euston to Birmingham line on Thursday and thank you for your patience.
What happened?
There were three main incidents.
1. At 1220hrs a person was hit by a train at Leighton Buzzard station, which meant no trains could run between Milton Keynes and London until the emergency services has finished at the scene. Although two lines reopened at 1258hrs, and the other two at 1320hrs, trains were unable to stop at the station until 1605hrs.
2. Between 1540-1725hrs the points weren't operating correctly at Ledburn Junction, just south of Leighton Buzzard. This meant that our fastest services were forced to travel on the slow lines for longer leading to congestion and delays.
3. At 1620hrs, a tree was reported as being dangerously close to the overhead power lines near Berkswell, which led to the route between Birmingham International and Coventry being closed between 1720-1805hrs whilst engineers cut down and removed the hazard.
In addition, the line between Birmingham and Lichfield was closed all afternoon/evening due to a tree falling onto a train near Sutton Coldfield, which added to station congestion at Birmingham New Street.
What did we do?
Any disruption on the Euston line has a major impact on Virgin and London Midland services, but having 3 major incidents spanning almost 6 hours was extremely challenging. Although we managed to quickly arrange for tickets to be accepted on other routes into London (St Pancras and Marylebone), we had less success in sourcing alternative transport to/from Leighton Buzzard. As soon as the lines reopened we therefore tried to run as many trains as possible, and lifted ticket restrictions, but appreciate that the service from London suffered significant disruption throughout the evening due to trains and traincrew being held up on earlier journeys.
How did we do?
These situations are always difficult, but we try to ensure that you have the information you need to make decisions about your travel plans. This included providing regular updates via our Twitter feed @londonmidland. However, if you would like to tell us how we did, or have suggestions for the future, please email comments@londonmidland.com
If you were delayed by more than 30 minutes, remember you can claim Delay Repay compensation via our iPhone App or at londonmidland.com/delayrepay.
