'Glitch' on West Coast main line

Engineers work on the West Coast Main Line

The West Coast mainline has had a �9bn upgrade over its whole length.

The West Coast main line suffered slight delays on the first working day of its new timetable, following a �9bn modernisation of the entire line.

Network Rail said a fuse had blown in a track circuit in Willesden in north-west London, but was soon fixed.

Network Rail later said delays to the trains affected had averaged between 10 and 15 minutes.

A spokeswoman added that there had been no further problems on the line following the Willesden incident.

The circuit failure occurred at 0730 GMT, and engineers had fixed it by about 0840 GMT, she said.

Two of the four tracks through that section of the West Coast line were closed for a time as a result of the blowout.

Passengers will hope that the teething problems experienced on the West Coast line are just that

Anthony Smith, Passenger Focus

BBC transport correspondent Tom Symonds said this was "an embarrassing slip" for the first day of Network Rail's new West Coast timetable.

But the company insists the decade-long modernisation project will transform rail travel on this vital artery of the network, our correspondent added.

Network Rail has said services will be improved and journey times cut by up to 30% following the upgrade work.

Passengers were stranded for up to six hours overnight on the other main London to Scotland route - the East Coast main line - after power cables came down.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of customer watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "Passengers will hope that the teething problems experienced on the West Coast line are just that. But delays of up to six hours on the East Coast line are very disappointing.

"Occasionally things will go wrong, but the industry needs to get better at recovering the situation and providing accurate and timely information.

Meanwhile, people travelling with three other rail companies - Chiltern, Wrexham & Shropshire and CrossCountry - were delayed up to one hour on Monday morning because of overrunning engineering work between Leamington Spa and Banbury.

A broken-down train in the Manchester area affected rush-hour services on Northern Rail and First Transpennine Express.