Two rail passengers have described their travel nightmares when trying to return to the North East from London earlier today.

As most rail services were not running on Tuesday because of the red weather warning, travellers were warned they should only travel today if absolutely necessary.

The disruption and confusion led to crowds of people at busy stations including London Kings Cross and London Euston. The East Coast mainline was fully closed until midday and is now operating a heavily reduced service.

A 25-year-old Darlington man who moved to London at the end of March had his first trip home disrupted by the rail chaos.

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His 10:30am train from London Kings Cross was cancelled and he then had to queue for almost two hours in the heat as hundreds of people tried to catch the next service north.

He said: “It was chaotic and really hot. People were pushing towards the barriers and at one point I worried that people might get trampled.

"When I finally managed to get on a train it was standing room only, so I'm stood up basically against the door in the connecting carriage area.

“It's not going to be a great journey home.”

Patrick Gouldsbrough, a reporter at The Northern Echo, was also caught up in the mayhem at a London station this morning.

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He left Limehouse in London just before 8am and headed to Euston Station. There was already an overwhelming number of people there after East Coast Main Line services were cancelled from Kings Cross, Euston and St Pancras.

Patrick said: “I grabbed the delayed train to Crewe at 10:40, 20 minutes late. We’ve just been informed that this train will terminate in Sheffield and won’t be continuing to Leeds, York, Darlington and Durham and beyond because of overhead line disruption.”

LNER tweeted this morning to say that no trains were running between London Kings Cross and Peterborough.

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The trainline tweeted again this afternoon saying people should only travel if absolutely necessary.

LNER tweeted again informing people about the services that would be running as scheduled.

Was your train cancelled or delayed today? Let us know if you have had a terrible time being stuck at a railway station.

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