Thousands of airline passengers in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire risk missing flights
Trains are experiencing multiple signalling failures disrupting trains.
Thousands of airline passengers risk missing flights due to multiple signalling failures disrupting trains.
Operator East Midlands Railway said the issue is preventing it from running services between London St Pancras and Luton.
A Thameslink service calling at the airport was delayed by nearly two hours.
Rail services are expected to be disrupted for the rest of today due to the fault between London St Pancras and St Albans.
Thameslink has issued an alert to passengers which says:
Please do not attempt travel between Bedford and London Bridge until further notice
They have also declared the disruptions caused by multiple signal failures have happened again.
"Due to the level of disruption, passengers are advised to delay travelling until later."
They are advising passengers who are travelling to find alternative means on "some to all of your journey." And to allow an additional 60 minutes to travel."
A depot was also affected, causing delays to trains operating early morning services.
Network Rail's Statement
We have approached Network Rail, for comment, they are responsible for signalling. They told us...
"Network Rail is sorry that there is a reduced service for passengers at the southern end of the Midland Main Line today.
They have confirmed there are "problems with part of the signalling control system following essential upgrade work over Christmas.
"Thameslink is running reduced services.
"EMR is already affected by work to electrify the Midland Main Line which is not scheduled to be completed until tomorrow (28 December) ."
This means that "services are terminating at Wellingborough with road transport to Bedford for onward travel to London.
Passengers are advised that services are expected to be very busy.
Gary Walsh, route director for Network Rail, said “I am very sorry that our engineering work is affecting passengers today. There is a fault with part of the signalling control system which means we need to reduce the number of trains which are able to run.
“Siemens signalling engineers are working to restore a reliable system as soon as possible.”
"The work over Christmas involved Siemens installing a new system to control signals on the Midland Main Line from Bedford to St Pancras."