Another day of delays on the trains

The latest in a series of similar difficulties was at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire which, with a signalling problem nearby in the New Barnet area, caused delays on the East Coast main line, which runs from York, Leeds and Doncaster to London.

Elsewhere, a problem with lineside equipment was causing disruption near Shepley in Yorkshire. This led to delays for passengers travelling between Huddersfield and Barnsley.

Meanwhile, other overhead line problems dragged down overall train punctuality last month.

A total of 91.4% of trains ran on time in the period March 3 to March 31, compared with 93.4% for the same period last year, Network Rail said.

The poorest-performing company was East Coast which was hit by an overhead line problem at Newark in Nottinghamshire and other infrastructure faults during the month.

East Coast was able to run only 82.8% of trains on time last month - fractionally lower than the 82.9% achieved by the other main London to Scotland company - West Coast main line operator Virgin Trains.

Rail regulators have been particularly concerned about the performance on long-distance services such as those run by East Coast and Virgin.

Another cause for concern recently has been the performance of the London Midland train company which has offered travellers compensation for delays caused by staff shortages.

London Midland ran 85.7% of trains on time last month - well below the national average. Other companies where performance dipped below 90% in March were First Capital Connect (87.4%), Southern (87.8%) and CrossCountry (89.2%).

Best-performing company last month was the London to Tilbury and Southend operator c2c which ran 97.2% of trains on time. Next best was London Overground at 96.9%.