Rail breakdowns strand passengers

Passengers on a Virgin train were stranded for six hours

Hundreds of passengers aboard up to 20 trains were left stranded on the West Coast mainline after a series of breakdowns brought services to a standstill on Sunday.

A signalling failure between Milton Keynes and Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, was already causing delays when an engineering vehicle broke down on the same stretch of line blocking the route.

A spokesman for Network Rail said that the signalling failure closed two of four available lines and that up to 20 trains were involved causing delays of up to two hours.

Passengers on a Virgin train from Liverpool Lime Street to London were stranded near Bletchley for six hours.

Massive upgrade

A Virgin spokesman apologised for the delay and said: "Obviously this is one of those things that is out of our control."

The West Coast mainline track is currently undergoing a massive upgrade to replace outdated and worn tracks ignored for years by former railway engineers, Railtrack.

Virgin's Pendolino tilting trains are unable to run at their full speed of 125mph until the track is replaced.

The newly-formed Strategic Rail Authority reviewed the project, which was over budget and suffering delays, when Railtrack was taken under government control.

It now plans to close large sections of the route for up to 16 weeks at a time to allow the work to be done causing alterations to many services.