Thousands of rail passengers suffered travel misery today after a freight train derailment closed a section of a busy main London to Scotland line.

The incident at 2.43am today at Joancroft, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, led to the closure of the East Coast Main Line between Doncaster and York.

And Network Rail (NR), which is conducting an inquiry into the derailment, said the section of the line would be shut ''for at least 24 hours''.

East Coast operator GNER was the worst hit by the closure and was attempting to divert trains via Leeds. Virgin CrossCountry services were also affected as were, to a slight extent, those of Arriva Trains Northern.

Services as far north as Edinburgh and as far south as London were affected by the line closure.

GNER said its passengers would experience delays of around one hour.

The company was running half-hourly services between London and Leeds and hourly services between Edinburgh and York, as well as laying on shuttle services between York and Leeds.

An NR spokeswoman said: ''This was a minor freight derailment involving a train run by freight company EWS.

''One set of wheels on one wagon came off the track on a freight-only line, causing damage to a set of points on the main line.''