Rail commuters suffered a nightmare journey to work today as national and local services were plunged into chaos following yesterday's storms. Many passengers were simply left behind on sub-urban platforms in Birmingham, unable to squeeze on to trains full of passengers from earlier, cancelled services. And those travelling between Birmingham and London endured massive problems. By 10am every service from Euston to New Street and from Snow Hill to Marylebone had been cancelled or delayed. On the local network, passengers using the Cross City and Walsall lines, which both rely on overhead power lines, bore the brunt of the disruption. Hundreds of city centre workers were late at their desks, some by an hour or more. One fed up commuter, from Stirchley, said: "I went to Bournville Station to get the 7.40am but a train didn't arrive until 8.10pm and it was packed to the gunnels. About 60 of us couldn't get on and were left behind. It was 8.55am - an hour and 15 minutes late - before I got on a service." Railtrack engineers worked through the night to clear debris and repair damage. But by dawn this morning there were still problems with some overhead lines and, as the morning rush hour wore on, the delays built up. A spokesman for local operator Central Trains said: "A full service did start this morning but there were delays due to the aftermath of yesterday's storms and these had a knock-on effect. "The Cross City Line has been the worst but we hope to have everything sorted out for this evening's rush hour." Chiltern services between Snow Hill and Marylebone were thrown into chaos after debris blocked the line near High Wycombe. Most services were cancelled with passengers turning up at Snow Hill redirected to New Street where rival operator Virgin had agreed to take them on its Euston-bound services. But it was not long before those services were also hit as the network ground to a halt. Instead of three Virgin trains an hour from New Street to Euston, there was just one and that was terminating at Milton Keynes where passengers were forced to switch to a Silverlink service. Among those caught up in the disruption was Evening Mail reporter Claire Newbon who had been due to get the 8.15am Virgin service from Euston to New Street. "We finally left at 9am, took an hour to get to Watford, stopped and then turned round back to Euston. "By 11am there were thousands of people stranded at Euston. You had to fight your way through the crowds. Tempers were starting to fray because there was a lack of information. There wasn't even anyone on the Virgin desk." A Virgin spokesman said a huge leaf fall onto rails had compounded the problems. Railtrack was doing all it could to clear tracks. Among those caught up in the chaos were a group of medical students who had been at weekend conference in Birmingham. They had already spent last night sleeping on friends' floors after their trains were cancelled. Lynda Fenton, aged 23, from University College London, said she arrived at New Street this morning to find three trains to Euston cancelled in the space of an hour. "We don't know when we're going to get back," she said. "We rang National Rail Enquiries but they just had a recorded message. It's absolutely awful." | 
