£2 fuse brings £9bn upgrade of West Coast line to a halt

THE West Coast Main Line was brought to a halt today by a £2 fuse, only hours after it reopened following its £9 billion rebuild.

The line opened at 5 am — only to come to a partial stop again two hours and 40 minutes later when the fuse blew in the signalling system at Willesden.

That knocked out two of the four lines between London and the North — right in the middle of the morning peak.

Six trains were cancelled and others delayed between Euston and Scotland. Network Rail had the fuse replaced by 8.28 am but the problem caused knock-on delays into the morning.

An RMT union engineer at the scene said: "The fuse, which would only cost a couple of quid, blew. We traced the fault very quickly but it could not have happened at a worse time."

A spokesman for NR, responsible for the line upgrade which has taken 10 years, said: "It was one of those daily glitches that any operating railway has to cope with. Services were back to normal by 10.30 am."

Transport expert Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics, was stuck at Euston trying to get to Birmingham. He said: "For a while it was chaos. Trains were cancelled and others delayed."

At the moment the fuse blew and brought trains to an embarrassing standstill, Iain Coucher, NR chief executive, was extolling the virtues of the new line which has been beset with funding and construction problems. He said preparation for today's opening had been "meticulous".

"We hope there won't be any issues but we can't guarantee there won't but we are ready for anything," he said.

The upgrade is one of the biggest civil engineering jobs in recent years with new track, platforms and signalling.

Tilting trains will travel at speeds of up to 125 mph.

It will provide a major boost for operator Virgin Trains with an extra 1,100 trains a week and many journey times slashed by up to 30 per cent.

NR said the journey between London and Birmingham could take just an hour and 12 minutes — 31 minutes quicker than before.

A Virgin Trains service between Euston and Glasgow can now be completed in four hours and 30 minutes — a saving of 50 minutes.

A large section of the West Coast line will be shut again during Christmas, as revealed last month by the Evening Standard.

This is for on-going maintenance work. The line will be closed from 25 to 28 December south of Coventry.

There will be no Virgin Trains service between Euston and Milton Keynes. Trains will be redirected via the Chilterns to Birmingham.