Train passengers hit by second day of Bank Holiday disruption

Yesterday’s problems followed hours of chaos on the line 24 hours earlier, when 220 yards of power lines were damaged near Grantham, Lincolnshire, leading to disruption on most of the day’s services.

A spokeswoman for service operator East Coast said customers travelling through York yesterday were hit by delays of around an hour, but last night she added: “The damage is far less extensive than yesterday and we are advising people to travel as normal.”

She said the situation was expected to be back to normal early yesterday evening, adding that diesel trains were still being used to carry passengers through the affected area.

The cause of the damage to the lines on both occasions is not known.

A Network Rail spokesman said it could take “a couple of days” to pinpoint the cause in each case and yesterday engineers were still working to try to establish why the failures occurred.

The damage to the overhead lines near York yesterday became apparent at around 11.30am, the East Coast spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile Saturday’s disruption caused cancellations of services in both directions between Grantham, Lincolnshire, and Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. Most of the day’s journeys were affected by the damage, with 70 of the day’s 102 services subjected to delays.

The damage was so extensive it took Network Rail engineers much of the day to resolve the problem.

A spokesman said around 220 yards of overhead equipment had been damaged, adding: “There is a lot of damage that needs to be repaired.”

He said the damage could have been caused by a number of things including a technical problem with the lines, vandalism or even a carrier bag becoming entangled in the overhead wires.

The damage to the lines became apparent at around 10.20am on Saturday.

Passengers were advised to use alternative routes. Passengers travelling from London were also advised to use alternative services from St Pancras or Euston, where crowds of people tried to board trains and passengers reported chaotic scenes as they faced long queues while they waited for information.

Replacement shuttle bus services were running throughout Saturday between London King’s Cross and Peterborough, and between Grantham and destinations north.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend some road routes were reported busy as people attended events including the Yorkshire Game Fair, at Harewood House, near Leeds, which attracted thousands of visitors yesterday.

Motorists faced slow moving traffic on the A63 from Hull towards the M62 between the junctions with the A1079 and the A1105 as a result of an accident which closed one lane yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday evening traffic was also reported to be moving slowly on the M62 between junction 27 at Birstall and junction 28, near Morley, Leeds, after a broken down vehicle closed a lane.

Elsewhere in the country, Bank Holiday motorists faced more significant delays in the Midlands as a serious crash caused delays that affected the M42 and M6 toll motorways, as well as the A38 where the collision happened, on Saturday.

The roads were also busy as a result of football fans travelling to London for Saturday night’s Champions League soccer final between Barcelona and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium, in addition to those on the road for Bank Holiday breaks.

Those who have travelled for breaks in Britain may have wished they had gone abroad, as disappointing weather which brought heavy rain showers and only spells of sunshine yesterday.

Today forecasters are predicting the day will be overcast across Yorkshire, with some light rain at times.