A lane closure on the bridge caused 10-mile tailbacks

Ten-mile tailbacks built up during rush hour on Monday evening for traffic travelling into Cornwall over the Tamar Bridge and through the Saltash Tunnel.

The delays were caused by the sudden decision to close one lane of the bridge westbound and one lane of the tunnel in the same direction.

Travel around the South West was also disrupted on Tuesday morning after a broken rail was detected on the region's main line in Devon at the beginning of rush hour.

Safety closures

The Highways Agency decided to close the sections on the A38 for safety reasons after resurfacing work in the area over the weekend.

The actual work itself carried out overnight did not cause any problems.

But engineers realised on Monday that vital road markings had been removed during the improvements.

Have your say on the delays at BBC Devon

The Highways Agency says it is working as quickly as possible to replace the road markings.

But they have warned it could be Wednesday at the earliest before the work can be completed.

Meanwhile, many rail passengers had to deal with severe delays and others had to leave trains at stations while technicians worked to repair the broken train line.

A crack in the line was detected between Ivybridge and South Brent just before 0800 BST.

The line was taken out of use, meaning trains travelling in both directions had to operate on a single line.