Great North Eastern Railways withdrew its entire rolling stock of electric high speed trains after a derailment on Tuesday evening.

The accident was blamed on a cracked carriage wheel, prompting GNER to call in all its InterCity 225's for inspections. Around 2,000 wheels were checked using an ultrasonic technique.

An investigation has been launched into the derailment

A spokesman for GNER said all the trains had now been inspected and passed by its safety engineers.

Nine people suffered minor injuries when the last coach of a high speed train came off the rails at Sandy, in Bedfordshire.

Earlier this month 100 passengers died when a high speed train was derailed in Eschede, Germany. Authorities believe a broken wheel caused the crash and ordered the replacement of wheels on all 59 similar trains.

The order to carry out safety inspections plunged morning rail services on the east coast line into chaos.

The German rail crash was caused by a broken wheel

GNER continued to run its eight diesel-powered locomotives on the route but the lack of other engines meant the normal half-hourly departures from London to Edinburgh were cut to one every 90 minutes.

The GNER spokesman said: "All our trains have now been checked and are being gradually introduced back into service.

"The main problem is that the trains are not now where they should be, and so it will take several hours to get them back in service.

"We hope that by early evening we will get a nearly complete service in place, and that by tomorrow things will be back to normal."

HSE investigation

Meanwhile, the Health and Safety Executive has begun an investigation into the cause of Tuesday's derailment.

"The immediate cause of the accident appears to be a fractured wheel and we are concentrating investigations on a wheelset from the derailed carriage," said the HSE's Deputy Chief Inspector of Railways, Vic Coleman.