Thousands of rail passengers endured travel misery when a power supply problem closed part of a main London to Scotland route.

Network Rail said the power supply to the signalling system failed at 8.35am in the Bletchley area on the West Coast Main Line.

With the power down, all signals automatically went to red, preventing services from running through this area.

Trains from the north were turned around at Rugby and trains from Euston station in London could only get as far north as Northampton with buses in between.

Travellers on Virgin Trains and on London Midland services suffered cancellations and long delays.

At around 10.15am manual signalling was instigated allowing up to four trains per hour - fewer than half the normal number - to move through the affected area.

Normal power was restored at 11am but delays lasted for some time.

Today's disruption comes ahead of major West Coast engineering work this weekend which will mean there will be no direct Virgin Trains' services to and from Euston on Saturday and Sunday

All Virgin Trains services from the Midlands, north west England and Scotland will terminate at and start from either Birmingham International or Coventry stations.

A frequent replacement coach service will run in both directions between Birmingham International and Northampton.

This will connect with a train service running in both directions between Northampton and Euston, serving also Milton Keynes Central and Watford Junction. The train service will be three trains an hour on Saturday and two an hour on Sunday.

Services between the North Wales coast and Euston will run in both directions between Holyhead and Crewe only.

NR has said there will need to be a number of weekend closures on parts of the WCML for the major upgrade of the line to be completed by December.