TRAIN passengers feared the worst when they were told their northbound express was on the wrong track.

The GNER service from London stopped for half an hour on the East Coast main line in County Durham on Sunday night.

One woman said: "The conductor made an announcement saying that, unfortunately, we had taken the wrong track, but hopefully we'd be able to move forward as soon as possible

"Being on the wrong track was the only explanation we had. Everyone was getting really agitated. They were wondering if there had been a signal failure."

The woman, who is complaining to GNER, added: "People were wondering whether a freight train would plough into the train because we were not supposed to be on that line.

"After about half an hour we starting moving forward very slowly. It wasn't very nice.

"The train had been delayed because of the Hatfield crash and was stopping at extra stations and was an hour late arriving.''

A spokesman for Railtrack said trains in both directions were using the southbound track because of engineering work on the northbound line.

"Single track working, as we call it, is perfectly safe. Presumably the train was waiting for a train coming south to clear the section.''

A spokesman for GNER said: "There were no reports of anything untoward happening."