THE railway line at Bromsgrove will be closed for 12 days from Wednesday, October 26, as part of a £100m investment.

The work at Bromsgrove involves reconfiguring the track, points and crossings in the area around the station, and bring into use new signalling in preparation for electrification. This will increase the number of trains serving Bromsgrove station from December 2017.

Throughout the closure of the line there will be alterations to services to and from Bromsgrove, Hereford and Birmingham.

Richard Dugdale of Network Rail said: “This £100m investment at Bromsgrove is key to modernising the railway through the area and providing passengers with a more reliable, better railway.

“There is never a good time to close the railway but we have looked at all options and worked with London Midland and CrossCountry to complete this work at a time which will cause least disruption to passengers."

Steve Fisher of London Midland said: “We will do all we can to minimise the inconvenience to our passengers during this upgrade. Electrification will mean we can add lots more trains and lots more services between Bromsgrove and Birmingham. This extra capacity will also benefit passengers travelling to Hereford and Worcester as rail users switch to the more frequent Bromsgrove services.”

During the closure, London Midland will run a bus replacement service between Longbridge, Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa. Hereford to Birmingham services will run at peak times via a diversion between Droitwich Spa and Birmingham New Street.