THE West Coast main line had to be closed to trains to and from the North West of England after a light plane crashed next to the line at Colwich junction in Staffordshire.

Two people in the aircraft are thought to have died in the crash which happened where two routes diverge, one to Crewe and the other to Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester, The accident happened at noon on Friday, 2 January after the aircraft hit overhead line power cables on the Stoke route not far from houses at Main Road, Colwich.

The incident led to major disruption to Virgin Trains and London Midland service affecting thousands of passengers as a major investigation into the cause of crash was launched.

Two Virgin Trains – the 10.55 from Manchester Piccadilly and the 08.40 from Glasgow Central - were trapped when power was isolated between Stafford and Rugeley for the emergency services to attend and had to be diesel-hauled back to Stafford.

Also, the 10.59 from London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street and the 10.47 to Manchester Piccadilly had to go back to Rugby to travel via the West Midlands route, over which all other services were diverted with journey time increases of up to an hour.

London Midland had to stop services between Liverpool Lime Street and Birmingham New Street and run shuttle services between Liverpool and Crewe. Buses replaced trains between Crewe and Wolverhampton/Rugby.

Virgin Trains said that all services were being diverted through West Midlands routes.

Network Rail said that overhead lines had been damaged but wreckage from the plane had missed the tracks.