London Midland services to and from London are not operating this morning (Wednesday 7 Janaury) after serious damage to overhead power lines in the Wembley area has brought services to a stand still.
The West Coast main line used by London Midland services for its direct services to London Euston from Birmingham and Crewe which operate via Northampton, Milton Keynes, Watford and local stations into London is closed for repair work until further notice. The problems, which are just north of Wembley, happened on Tuesday evening affecting services from around 20.00 onwards.
This morning London Midland is operating only a very limited train service to try to connect passengers to stations where they can transfer to buses for links to other routes into London. All London services will terminate at Northampton, with only a shuttle train service between Northampton and Hemel Hemstead operating south of Northampton.
Operations Director Andy Thomas said there were very few options available to try to provide a service for commuters this morning,
"We have been working with Network Rail and Virgin since yesterday evening when the problems first occured and throughout the night to try to provide a service to offer passengers who need to get to London today.
"Unfortunately there is not much that we can do whilst the repairs are carried out and today is going to be another day of major disruption to our services along the West Coast route, with no London services possible until further notice.
"We are working closely with Network Rail to understand exactly why this damage to power lines has happend."
London Midland services were disrupted overnight on Sunday and Monday this week, when problems with overhead power lines in the Watford area again caused train services to London Euston to be suspended. There were also problems with overhead power cables in the Bletchley and Rugby areas yesterday which caused delays and cancellations to London Midland services between Nuneaton, Rugby, Northampton, Milton Keynes and local stations into London Euston throughout the morning.
Today passengers are advised to find alternative routes to London if possible, with no direct train services available and only a very limited local train service operating between Northampton and Hemel Hempstead with special bus services connecting to stations on other routes for London as follows:
Northampton - bus services connecting to Wellingborough for transfer to East Midlands Trains services to London St Pancras
Milton Keynes - bus services connecting to Luton for transfer to East Midlands Trains services to London St Pancras from Luton.
