Passengers left behind by rail replacement buses

Commuters have said they had been left behind by a rail replacement bus service put in place after a landslip closed part of a railway line.

The line between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury was closed on Friday after a landslip near Oakengates, with Network Rail saying it was likely to be closed until 25 March.

Rail operators put replacement bus services in place but passengers claimed there were not enough to meet demand.

West Midlands Railway said it was disappointed passengers had been left behind and that it had put on additional services to try and increase capacity.

Val Franklin, who works at Aston University, was at Telford Station on Wednesday waiting to get a rail replacement bus to Wolverhampton, where she was due to get a train to Birmingham.

She told BBC Radio Shropshire that buses were showing up but there were not enough seats to fit on board everyone who was waiting and that it was adding a couple of hours to people’s journeys.

“I’m basically stuck with this or hoping that my boss will be kind to me and say I can go home,” she said.

“I think they’re trying their best but the problem is that the buses are used for other things like school runs.”

She said that the capacity of buses was nowhere near that of train carriages and said they would often get stuck when there were issues on the roads.

“It’s a no-win situation for anybody,” she added.

Andrew McGill, public affairs manager at West Midlands Railway, said it had been difficult to judge the number of buses they would need and admitted that the capacity was not enough.

“People were left behind, which was really disappointing,” he said.

Mr McGill said the operator had put additional buses into service and that more were on standby.

Plans were also being drawn up to run a partial train service along part of the line as far as Shifnal, he added.

Network Rail, which is responsible for repairing the affected line, said about 5,000 tonnes of material had slipped beneath the 50m stretch of track, caused by the recent heavy rainfall.

Adam Checkley, infrastructure director for Network Rail, apologised to passengers and said the line would be shut for at least two weeks while repairs were carried out.

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