London Euston rail station to close for emergency flood repairs

West Coast main line trains are being cancelled later this evening and early on Thursday morning

Rain line: flooding outside Euston station in London (Network Rail)

One of Britain’s busiest railway stations, London Euston, is to close overnight to allow engineers to repair flood damage.

Monday night’s heavy rainfall affected signalling systems and caused a fire in an electricity substation at the terminus for the West Coast main line.

Trains in and out of Euston will be halted from 11pm on Wednesday and are hoped to restart at around 6am on Thursday.

The closure will affect Avanti West Coast links to the West Midlands, northwest England and southern Scotland, as well as London Northwestern Railway services to Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

“Urgent repairs need to take place to pump away any remaining standing water and fix cables damaged in the electrical fire,” London Northwestern said in an alert to passengers.

James Dean, West Coast South route director from Network Rail, said: “I’m sorry that your journeys have been disrupted this week. Our engineers will be making critical repairs on Wednesday night.

“The floods made the railway look like a swimming pool, but with 750 volts of electricity running through it.

“We’ve had to make the site safe before going in and pumping away the remaining flood water and repairing the fire damage.”

The last Avanti West Coast services to arrive into Euston will be the 4.52pm from Edinburgh via Carlisle and Preston; the 7.47pm from Liverpool; the 8.15pm from Manchester; and the 9.10pm from Birmingham New Street.