Some passengers were delayed by more than five hours

Signalling problems in Bridgwater were blamed for the hold-up of three trains travelling to the West and South West.

The affected trains were Virgin's services from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Plymouth, and a Wessex train from Cardiff to Exeter.

Passenger Leigh Rundle said: "We are in here like sardines. There's no air."

I won't ever do it again Virgin Train passenger

Ms Rundle, who was returning home from Nottingham to Exeter, arrived at her destination more than five hours late, having travelled on five trains and a coach.

Other passengers complained about conditions on board the trains, including overcrowding and lack of facilities.

One passenger said: "It was horrendous - a nightmare journey.

"One of the toilets was broken and there were far too many people standing in the carriages and corridors to get past to another toilet.

"I won't ever do it again."

Virgin Trains apologised for the delays and said a signalling problem at Bridgwater compounded hold-ups already caused by engineering work on the line.

Virgin says despite 'heavy loading', safety was not compromised

The spokesman said: "We apologise to all the customers affected.

"We did our best to provide a train service given the problems."

Lee West told BBC News Online that despite the trains being heavily loaded, passengers' safety was not compromised.

He said: "The train manager is in charge and can refuse to let passengers on, or in some cases hold the train and ask some passengers to leave."

A Wessex Train was also held up. A spokeswoman for the company said they were looking into how the company handled the delay.

She said: "Our evening services can be very busy not only on our services but on Virgin as well - we have apologised to our customers for the delays.

"If anyone [delayed] wants to contact our customer services, we will see what we can do in terms of compensation for the inconvenience caused."