At the end of the month, the Cross City North line between Birmingham and Lichfield will have no trains running for seven days.

From the 28th July until the 3rd August, no service will run, with normal service resuming on the 4th August.

There will be rail replacement services running between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley and between Birmingham New Street and Tame Bridge Parkway.

On the southern section of the line between Birmingham New Street and Redditch/ Bromsgrove, services will be running as normal.

Those travelling to Rugeley Trent Valley will be diverted via Aston, seeing extended journey times.

The planned closure was initially made for installing a HS2 viaduct; however, this is being installed at a later date. Instead, Network Rail will be carrying out other work, including track maintenance and cutting back vegetation.

As journey times will differ, passengers are urged to check before they travel and plan ahead online.

“Everything was done to plan this work to cause the least disruption to the fewest number of people, while completing the most amount of maintenance work as possible. There is never a good time for closures like this and I am sorry for the inconvenience, but school holidays and summer breaks means passenger numbers will be lower than normal.

“Passengers should check with West Midlands Railway and National Rail Enquiries for travel information, and I want to thank passengers in advance for their patience.”

Denise Wetton, Network Rail’s Central route director