Shrewsbury and Telford trains disrupted after Wolverhampton railway station evacuated
Trains between Shrewsbury, Telford and Wolverhampton were delayed on Tuesday afternoon after the station in the Black Country city was evacuated.
Reports of the station being evacuated came in at around 3pm with train operators initially saying the situation as disturbance on a train, before describing it as a police incident.
A statement from West Midlands Railway said all lines were blocked "due to passengers causing a disturbance on a train at Wolverhampton".
Witnesses recalled being told to leave the station. Ben Holleron, 36, from Wolverhampton, said: "It all happened so quick. My train was about to pull in to go to Manchester.
"We were on platform two and the police asked us to evacuate platform two," he said, before saying he heard officers say "get everybody off now".
"They kicked everybody out the station at that point," he added.
A man who did not want to be named, was stuck on a train from Birmingham to Wolverhampton. He said: "I'm now running late for my bus as I was travelling from Birmingham, and we stopped outside of Wolverhampton.
"We were waiting on the train for around 25-30 minutes.
"We were informed that there was a police incident going on, and that's all we were told.
A group of friends said: "We did not see exactly what was going on but we saw police officers running around the platforms, and were told to evacuate quickly because of an incident."
Network Rail worker, Steven Cane, said he saw officers running towards the station with others dressed in black and evacuating the scene.
The station was reopened at around 3.40pm, but train operators continued to warn of disruption until 5.30pm with trains either delayed by up to 25 minutes or cancelled.
A West Midlands Railway spokesperson said: “Passengers were asked to leave Wolverhampton station for a short time on Tuesday afternoon while the police attended following a report of a person acting suspiciously.
“The station was fully reopened at around 3.30pm and services are now running as usual. Any passenger whose journey was delayed by 15 minutes or more as a result of the incident can claim compensation via Delay Repay.”
