PASSENGERS faced major disruption yesterday after signal failures at opposite ends of the East Coast Main Line.

The signal problems primarily hit GNER services, which experienced severe delays, but Cross Country trains operated in the North by Virgin and TransPennine Express trains were also affected.

Last night, Network Rail said its engineers were still working to repair multiple signal faults between Sandy, in Bedfordshire, and St Neots, Cambridgeshire, which happened at about 11.50am and led to a reduced GNER service between Peterborough and Stevenage.

A second fault between Northallerton and Darlington, which was blamed on a loss of electrical power, was reported an hour later at 12.50pm.

A reduced service was again put in place between these two locations, affecting all three train operators, until the fault was repaired at about 2.30pm.

However, the combined effect of both signal failures continued to be felt into the evening rush-hour, particularly for travellers north of York and those trying to get in and out of London.

There were also reports of people abandoning journeys as a result of the chaos.

One woman travelling from Darlington to Manchester Airport was forced to ditch plans to travel by train and instead get a hire car.

She said: "It was a total shambles. No one seemed to know what was going on and all the people at the station were saying there were no guarantees in terms of when trains would be running."

A spokesman for GNER said last night that its services were subject to late notice cancellation and alteration.

He said: "GNER wishes to apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause. Tickets that are dated Tuesday will be valid for use on Wednesday."

David Mallender, of First TransPennine, said about six trains running north of York had been affected.

He said: "We offer our sincere apologies to anyone caught up in the disruption. Trains have been getting through, but they have been quite badly delayed."

Virgin said its Cross Country services running between York and Newcastle were subject to "serious delays" and it was in the process of arranging alternative coach travel for those passengers hit.

A spokesman said: "It is proving very disruptive and is regrettable for passengers and the timetable will take time to recover."

Carolyn Watson, a Network Rail spokeswoman, said: "There has been a big knock-on effect as a result of the two incidents and we are working with the train operators to decide the best course of action to keep as robust a service as possible."