Delays and cancellations brought chaos to train travellers making journeys to and from Hereford yesterday.

A signalling failure during rush hour yesterday evening between Droitwich Spa and Bromsgrove blocked the line to Hereford.

A replacement bus service was put in place to shuttle stranded passengers to Hereford, but passengers had a lengthy wait to get a space on a bus.

It took Simon Smith, 38, over five hours to make the journey from Birmingham New Street to Hereford, where he lives.

He boarded a train at 16:50 yesterday afternoon and did not arrive back at Hereford until around 10:15pm- a journey that should take just under 90 minutes.

He said: “We got as far as Bromsgrove but then we had to get a replacement bus in the end which took forever.”

“We were all sat on the train and did not know what was happening.”

“They sent the one train back to Birmingham. I considered whether to join it but decided not to. In hindsight it might have been a better option.”

The heat on one of the hottest days of the year so far did not help the situation, with travellers struggling to find water.

Simon added: “It was the elderly passengers that I felt sorry for. One lady had been travelling from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. She said she had been doing OK until she got to here.”

Disruption had begun earlier yesterday afternoon after a points failure in Hereford caused trains to be cancelled and postponed.

Problems continued this morning with cancellations of key peak time services between Birmingham and Hereford.

Rail disruption has also been reported around the country as the UK is gripped by a summer heatwave.

In a statement released on Twitter, Andy Thomas, managing director of England and Wales at Network Rail said: “On very sunny days, rails in direct sunshine can be as much as 20 degrees centigrade above air temperature causing the steel to expand markedly and could, if not carefully monitored and action taken, buckle causing travel disruption.

“Our engineers and specialist extreme weather teams are monitoring track-side temperatures and vulnerable locations and will, if necessary, introduce temporary speed restrictions during the hottest part of the day to keep trains running, albeit more slowly than normal.”

Services to and from Hereford now appear to be running normally.

To check a service before you travel, visit: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/