RAIL travellers are being warned of major delays on some routes until Friday evening after a tractor damaged the line near Fitzwilliam in West Yorkshire.

National Rail Enquiries (NRE) said services including CrossCountry from Leeds to Reading and Plymouth and between Glasgow Central and Birmingham New Street are affected.

East Midlands Trains between Leeds and London St Pancras International and London North Eastern Railway between Leeds and London Kings Cross are also impacted, along with Northern services between Leeds and Doncaster and Sheffield.

NRE said: "The Network Rail, the fire service and a specialist recovery service have removed the tractor from the line. Network Rail are now undertaking repair work. We currently expect all lines to be open and trains able to run as normal from 18:00."

Network Rail is advising passengers to check before they travel.

"Workers from Network Rail have worked overnight and the tractor has now been removed. Initial repairs to the track and overhead line equipment have been completed and some services were able to resume at 10:30 this morning at a reduced speed," said a spokeswoman.

"Network Rail engineers will carry out further work this evening.

"Due to the nature of the incident, residual delays are expected so passengers are urged to check their journey ahead of time via National Rail Enquiries or with their train operator.

"We are sorry for any disruption and we'd like to thanks passengers for their patience whilst all services are fully restored."