Railway misery set to last a week

Sep 28 2005 By James Cartledge, Evening Mail

COMMUTERS heading for Birmingham faced a third day of rail misery today at the hands of one of the Midlands' most wanted criminals.

Services between Birmingham Snow Hill, Shirley and Dorridge were still operating at a vastly reduced level more than 48 hours after a suspected serial arsonist plunged the network into chaos by torching six signal boxes.

A £50,000 bounty has been placed on the firebug's head as Central Trains warned that passengers face up to a week of disruption.

"We are still suffering and have a very limited service on the Snow Hill line," said spokesman Ged Burgess. "British Transport Police are working very hard on this and we have briefed our staff to be extra vigilant.

"But it's having a knock-on effect and this character is going to be causing the best part of a week's disruption."

Only an hourly service was operating today between Snow Hill station and Stratford-on-Avon, instead of the usual four hourly trains from Shirley. And Chiltern Trains were operating just two trains an hour on the Dorridge line instead of four.

Mr Burgess said 5,000 commuters had been inconvenienced and 22 railway stations hit by reduced services.

The arsonist, who destroyed signal boxes between Small Heath and Tyseley stations, is believed to be responsible for three attacks in the last fortnight --one of which crippled services between New Street station and London Euston - and seven last summer.

The culprit is thought to be a rail insider using expert knowledge to cause maximum disruption.

Now the £50,000 reward has been offered by British Transport Police and Network Rail in a bid to tempt passengers and rail workers to shop the arsonist.

More information about timetable changes is available at www.centraltrains.co.uk.

Travellers can also call National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950.