Thousands of football fans expecting to travel to tomorrow’s Wolves v West Brom FA Cup clash by train will be met by buses as the Birmingham to Wolverhampton line is being shut down.

Network Rail said today that engineering work affecting both Virgin and Central Trains that was scheduled at least a year ago could not be postponed.

This comes in spite of the number of fans hoping to travel by rail. Now an inquiry is being launched into why the shutdown, from midnight tonight to midday tomorrow, was not publicised.

Read the full story in the Shropshire Star 

 Thousands of football fans expecting to travel to tomorrow’s Wolves v West Brom FA Cup clash by train will be met by buses as the Birmingham to Wolverhampton line is being shut down.

Network Rail said today that engineering work affecting both Virgin and Central Trains that was scheduled at least a year ago could not be postponed.

This comes in spite of the number of fans hoping to travel by rail. Now an inquiry is being launched into why the shutdown, from midnight tonight to midday tomorrow, was not publicised.

Sandwell councillor Roger Horton, vice chairman of Centro West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority, said he found out about the shutdown by chance only on Tuesday, and contacted Centro’s service director Robert Smith to ask why the firm was not aware of the closure on a day when the line would have been extremely busy.

Central Trains will now lay on buses to ferry supporters and other passengers between the rail stations en route following Mr Horton’s intervention.

He tried to get the work, for non-emergency repairs, moved to another date but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

The stations affected are Smethwick Rolfe Street, Galton Bridge, Sandwell and Dudley, Dudley Port, Tipton and Coseley.

Network Rail, which is responsible for the track, said the work was planned 12 months in advance and could not be shifted.

Spokeswoman Rachel Webster said: “The football game has been brought to our attention but we won’t be postponing the work.”

But Roger Horton said most fans were unaware that the trains would not be running. He said: “There will be 5,000 Albion fans travelling to the match – 1,000 of them by coach and the rest by train and car. That’s a lot of people affected.

“They face being stranded because not enough buses will be able to take that volume in one journey.”

Centro and Network Rail have issued an apology to passengers.