UPDATE: Major delays and cancellations for Northamptonshire rail passengers

Train passengers are facing major delays on East Midlands Railway services through Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough on Thursday morning.

All Corby services were cancelled while just one train an hour in each direction was stopping at Kettering and Wellingborough.

Rail replacement buses were being arranged to ferry passengers to and from Kettering for connecting services.

The trouble started with signal problems at Harpenden just after 7am and were compounded as a southbound Thameslink service was held up when a passenger was taken ill.

Train operator EMR predicted problems were likely to continue until about 2pm on Thursday (January 30).

An spokesman said: "There is a fault with the signalling system at Harpenden, between London St Pancras and Luton Airport Parkway and is disrupting our trains.

"Network Rail are looking into the problem with the faulty signal. A cable has been replaced overnight, however the fault is still there. While repairs are under way, Network Rail requested for fewer trains to run on the affected lines to prevent a build-up of delayed trains on this section of the railway.

"Trains running through the area will be delayed by 15 to 20 minutes in both directions.

"Our trains between London St Pancras and Corby will be cancelled to reduce the number of trains running through the affected area, while work is being carried out.

"As soon as the problem is fixed our priority will be to get trains running to their advertised times again. We expect our advertised timetable to resume on the affected routes by 14:00."