Posted 13th March 2020 | No Comments

13 March: news in brief

Tree-blocked Cross City line reopens

TRAIN services have returned to normal on the Birmingham Cross City line between New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley. A tree which had fallen across the railway near Wylde Green station on Wednesday night, pulling down the overhead wires, had to be removed from the tracks before Network Rail engineers, working round the clock, could rebuild the overhead. The work was completed yesterday and the line was reopened, slightly later than had been hoped, at 18.30 last night. Network Rail's director on the Central route Dave Penney said: ‘I am sorry for the disruption caused to journeys yesterday. Clearing the tree from the line was not the challenge – it was repairing the overhead lines which were pulled down as it fell on to the tracks. We did all we could to fix them and reopen the railway as quickly as possible. While the tree fell from a neighbouring property, this type of incident highlights why we carry out vegetation management on our land.’