Rail commuters delayed after overhead power fault brings trains to a halt

Thousands of passengers across the UK have faced a day of travel misery after trains were brought to a halt by a fault with overhead power.

Routes to London, Edinburgh, Manchester, North Wales and Southampton have been affected after 100 metres of electric wires in the Midlands came down at 6.30am on Tuesday.

Dozens of Virgin Trains, Arriva Trains, Cross Country and London Midland services through Birmingham have been delayed or cancelled.

Hundreds of passengers have been left stranded at stations waiting for bus replacement services to arrive.

Many vented their frustrations on Twitter.

Ian Williams posted: "@NRE_LondonMid why the hell is there no train going into Birmingham new st, yet again late for work because of this!!!"

Matthew Smith wrote: "@VirginTrains 19.03 London Euston to Birmingham New Street first class ticket at £268.00 and the train is declassified. Appalling service."

David Crossfied tweeted: "@Virgin_TrainsEC sitting waiting on a London euston bound train at coventry that should have gone ten minutes ago & no one has said why?????"

Network Rail said engineers are working to fix the problem and travellers can use their tickets on other viable routes.

A spokesman said: "This is a big repair job which we expect to take until after 8pm this evening to complete.

"Until then we and our train company colleagues are doing our utmost to keep passengers on the move."

It is believed the fault was caused by an "incident" involving an empty London Midland train, which got stuck between Birmingham and Coventry.

Bus replacement services are running between Rugby, Northampton and Coventry; and Chiltern Railways and Arriva Trains are both accepting London Midland and Virgin tickets.

Birmingham Airport has warned travellers to allow extra travel time to avoid missing their flights.

Network Rail said repair work is due to be completed by 10.30pm and normal service is expected to resume on Wednesday morning.