Crewe to Shrewsbury trains ran late or cancelled until 19:00 on Thursday after a track check at Nantwich

Transport for Wales said trains between Crewe and Shrewsbury could be cancelled in both directions, or delayed by up to 60 minutes, until 19:00 on Thursday. The cause was a safety inspection of the track at Nantwich, in Cheshire, on the TfW route between the two towns. TfW extended the disruption window twice, from 14:40 to 18:00 and then out to 14:40 to 19:00. Its estimate for finishing the inspection itself, 17:00, was never changed and had already passed. TfW did not say why the work took longer than it first thought.

Replacement buses

TfW put on three buses between Crewe and Shrewsbury at no extra cost, all calling at every stop: 15:45 and 17:30 from Crewe, provided by Northwich, and 16:35 from Shrewsbury, provided by Keanes. All three have now gone. TfW said the arrangements stayed in place until further notice but never named a later bus, and its page also still said it was looking for replacement road transport, which sat oddly with the three it had already listed. TfW warned that road transport takes longer than the train.

What to do

TfW has published no all clear. The entry is no longer on its live service status page, which carries disruption for the next two hours only, so its absence is not in itself confirmation that the line is back to normal. If one of TfW's trains was delayed or cancelled and you arrived at your destination more than 15 minutes later than scheduled, you can still claim through Delay Repay, the industry compensation scheme. If you decided not to travel because of this disruption and the ticket is unused, TfW says you can get a fee-free refund from wherever you bought it.

Update, 12:50 on Friday 4 September: the Nantwich entry has come off TfW's live service status page, checked at 12:50, and TfW has given no all clear. This brief has been put into the past tense.