A MAJOR landslide near the Chipping Sodbury tunnel has closed the main railway line between London and south Wales.

The slippage has damaged signal boxes and some trains between Bristol and Swindon could be cancelled for several days.

Passengers are being warned of short notice alterations, cancellations and delays of up to 30 minutes.

A number of services between London Paddington and Cardiff Central have already been cancelled.

Services which were due to run from Bristol Parkway will call at Patchway station instead, with a coach connection linking the two.

First Great Western spokesman Richard Smith said the line needed to be "completely rebuilt", including stabilisation work, new foundations, and new track and signalling.

"Until we can get engineers to the site to see the damage, we won't know what caused it, but it has covered several boxes that control points," he said.

The incident, reported at 11am this morning, happened on the day a rail consumer watchdog released a survey putting the train operator bottom of a passenger satisfaction league table.

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