Shrewsbury Food festival fans left queuing for buses as staff sickness sees trains cancelled

Revellers heading towards Shrewsbury for the food festival have been left waiting for replacement buses after staff sickness sees disruption to train services.

National Rail has said railway lines between Wellington and Shrewsbury station have been closed due to signalling staff being taken ill.

Disruption is expected until around 7pm on Saturday.

The first day of the Shrewsbury Food Festival is expecting hundreds of visitors to flood the town from neighbouring areas.

This isn't the first time signal staff sickness has forced the line to close down, in April, a Network Rail spokesperson said they were undergoing "an extensive recruitment and training programme" to ensure the manning of the Abbey Foregate signal box.

The box can only be safely operated by specially trained individuals.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said: "There's currently no indication that services will be disrupted tomorrow. Services should be back up and running after the shift change over happens at 6pm."

A Shropshire resident said:"This happened back in April as I was travelling back from my sons – waited ages for buses to be scrambled to take me from Wellington to Shrewsbury.

"How can a staff sickness bring the rail network to a complete standstill. What happened to the big recruitment drive that NR promised back then? Absolute shambles you are letting so many people down especially today with food fair on in Shrewsbury disgraceful . Shame on you National Rail."