Rail travellers are suffering further misery in the post-Christmas dash as the network was hit by overrunning engineering works.
Services across the country have been cancelled due to the issue in the Wolverhampton area.
Five operators have been affected including Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, LNER, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Railway.
The National Rail website described the problem as being caused by a “fault with a signalling system”, however passengers have been told scheduled engineering works have not finished.
This was also the reason given for cancellations by CrossCountry, the worst-affected operator which has axed at least 36 services so far on Friday.
The operator warned passengers services will be “extremely busy and may be subject to last minute changes and cancellations”.
Journalist Claire Hannah who found herself stranded this morning wrote on X: “If anyone is hoping to get the train from Manchester Piccadilly to Birmingham this morning…ALL services cancelled, because engineering works haven’t been done on time. So stay in bed.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Due to a signalling issue between Wolverhampton and Coseley, trains are severely disrupted in the Wolverhampton area.
“Our engineers are working hard to get to get the fault fixed and services up and running again.”
“We apologise for the disruption caused to journeys and would advise passengers to check www.nationalrail.co.uk and with their operator for the latest travel advice.”
Network Rail had already warned passengers to expect major disruption over the festive period due to a programme of engineering works.
London stations Liverpool Street and Paddington were both closed for several days after the last trains left on Christmas Eve, while the main line from St Pancras to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield will shut for nine days.
Trains into Paddington will be diverted to Euston, meaning that station will be busier than usual. London NorthWestern Railway has urged passengers to travel “either side” of the festive period to avoid disruption.
Work on the West Coast Main Line will mean reduced services and longer journeys until 5 January.
Train managers at Avanti West Coast are also set to go on strike in a dispute over rest day working, causing severe disruption on New Year’s Eve and 2 January, as well as every Sunday from 12 January to 25 May.
Eurostar passengers on the first train out of London since Christmas were also stuck in the Channel Tunnel for almost two-and-a-half hours after an apparent breakdown.
They are expected to arrive in the French capital some six hours behind schedule.
The cross-Channel service said in an update: “Train 9080 had a technical issue this morning. This train is now running at reduced speed to Calais where passengers will be transferred to another Eurostar train to continue their journey to Paris.”
The i Paper revealed the ten worst-performing rail companies cancelled 800 trains a day on average between 2023 and 2024 despite soaring fares and bumper pay and bonuses for bosses.
Passengers held up in the mass delays told The i Paper that they have been forced to board “rediculously overcrowded” trains as their journeys were delayed by up to six hours after the network was hit by overrunning engineering works.
Sam Hogg, 34, a foreign policy analyst from London, said he had been forced to board a “heaving train” from Birmingham to Edinburgh after his initial train to Manchester was cancelled.
The 34-year-old explained that he had intended to meet friends in Manchester and drive up the west coast to the Scottish Highlands, but had been forced to change his plans because of the cancellations and meet them in Glasgow instead.
He said he was scheduled to meet his friends just before 11am but it “will now be closer to 5pm with another three hours of driving to go,” he said.
Hogg joked that it was a “quintessential British train experience”.
“I have spent time in developing countries with better train infrastructure than we have here,” he said. “Does my nut in.”
George Reynolds, 35, said he left Euston to travel to Anglesey, north Wales, to see family for the day but had two cancellations which had made him miss two connections.
“I suspect by the time I get to Wales I’ll have been delayed around three hours,” the charity fundraising manager from Tottenham said from his “ridiculously overcrowded train” to Stafford.
“The only benefit to come out is knowing I can claim a full refund of £121.80 for this experience,” he said, calling the price a “joke”.
“Our rail network is well and truly broken,” he added.
