Planned engineering work on the West Coast mainline around Watford has been postponed by Network Rail - because of a landslide on a line near Banbury.
The work to improve the main line from Euston over the weekends of February 14/15 and 21/22 would have seen passengers redirected onto Chiltern services between Birmingham, High Wycombe and London Marylebone.
But the Chiltern route is currently blocked near the Harbury Tunnel due to a huge 350,000 tonne landslide on January 31 and will remain closed for several weeks.
As a result, the West Coast main line improvement work at Watford is being rescheduled so that a direct passenger route can be provided between the West Midlands and London.
Patrick Verwer, London Midland’s managing director, said: "Postponing the work at Watford is the right thing to do.
"Having two main lines from London to the midlands blocked could have caused severe disruption across the whole of the rail network as passengers and freight trains would have very few travel options available."
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