POLICE have appealed for information after vandals damaged railway cable beyond repair, bringing major disruption to passenger services on the East Coast Mainline.

The problem was reported near Darlington at around 4.20pm on Friday evening and led to trains being halted and many passengers across the region having to change their travel plans.

The attack left railway cable smouldering and damaged beyond repair, causing a total loss of signalling. 

Detective Inspector Mick Dawes, from the British Transport Police, said: “The area in question is known locally as Five Arch Bridge and is situated one mile north of Darlington railway station.

“At first we thought the signalling failure was caused by a fault to a generator however, following further investigations, we now believe that this was a deliberate act and I am urging anyone who was in the area that may have seen anything suspicious to get in touch with us on 0800-405040 or text us discreetly on 61016 quoting crime reference number 358 of 04/09/15.”

Trains at York in the south and Newcastle in the north were brought to a standstill with nothing able to run via Darlington.

A Network Rail spokesman said on Friday night: "Damage to a signal cable caused us to lose all signalling on all lines through Darlington.

"Engineers were quickly on site but due to the wide spread of the failure they had to inspect large amounts of equipment and cable to pinpoint the fault.

"It was subsequently identified as a piece of damaged signalling power cable - the cable had been deliberately damaged and BTP (British Transport Police) will assess the incident."

He said all signalling was restored by 8.30pm and trains are expected to run as planned today, but the incident caused significant disruption throughout the evening peak.

The Northern Echo:  

The photo posted by Virgin Trains

"A dozen trains had to be cancelled with many more, over 50, disrupted or delayed," he said.

"We understand the inconvenience the incident has caused to passengers and every effort was made to restore services as quickly as possible." 

Some trains were diverted via Sunderland with journeys times extended by up to 90 minutes.

A 'very limited' bus service was made available between York and Newcastle, while Northern Rail services between Saltburn and Middlesbrough and Bishop Auckland were also replaced by buses.

Virgin Trains East Coast and First TransPennine Express passengers were still being advised not to travel between York and Newcastle. 

Passengers who had tickets dated for Friday would be accepted on services today. Passengers can travel with any train company through the affected area.

Any Virgin Trains East Coast passengers affected by the disruption by 30 minutes or more can claim compensation from virgintrainseastcoast.com/customer-service/delay-repay

Earlier, Virgin Trains posted a photo on Twitter with the comment "Staff at our Control in York are working flat out to try and get you moving again after tonight's vandalism."

One rail user responded with the following: "@Virgin_TrainsEC can any of them drive a bus?"

At Allens West level crossing, near Eaglescliffe, some people had been waiting for half-an-hour or more and were starting to cross the line despite the potential danger of oncoming trains.

One witness said: “There’s a massive tailback of traffic at Allens West due to the lights stuck on flashing.

“Some cars are chancing crossing the track even though a train is due.”

Rail passengers took to Twitter to voice their frustration at the delays.

Teesside actress, Emma Devlin had been heading to London for a pantomime audition.

"I was booked on the 19:01 train," she tweeted. "Thee train got to Darlington but it's now at a standstill, I had to cancel because of an audition in the morning.

The Northern Echo:

Tari Lang's view while stuck on a train near Newcastle.

"So I am getting the 5am train hoping it all will be sorted. Very stressful because of the crazy delays."

Management consultant Tari Lang Tweeted a photo of the view from her train window with the message: "Nice view but getting quite bored with it after an hour. Train stuck somewhere outside Newcastle."

She was quite philosophical about her situation, however, writing: "Train will be stuck for 2hrs due to signal probs but at least I'm on a train & not fighting to get on in #Budapest #thankful.

"People quite cheery really considering... British upper lip and all that."

The Northern Echo:

Peter Randles and Rebecca Searby on their train

Photographer Ludovic Farine said he had been stuck on a train for several hours.

He posted a picture of his carriage and tweeted: "Nothing's happening for two hours and 30 minutes at Newcastle. No news at all on we'll get going".

The Northern Echo:

Thomas Caygill, a student in Newcastle, was stuck on a train. Asked what was happening, he posted a pictured of his glum-looking friends Peter Randles and Rebecca Searby and tweeted: "Nothing at the moment, we've had little info, coaches ordered haven't arrived either."

American ex-pat Katie Butters was forced to get a taxi to Durham from Newcastle because of the situation.

She tweeted: "Sadly the trains never moved .. it was total chaos at Newcastle station. They said there were coaches but I didn't see any."