An update has been issued about an 'obstruction' that a train struck on rail lines near Darlington on Wednesday (March 13).

Trains between London and Edinburgh were severely delayed and rail replacement bus services were in place, due to the train hitting an item on the tracks.

The incident happened at about 7.35pm, which saw a knock-on effect on train timetables for the remainder of the evening, with some trains to parts of the North East cancelled as a result. 

Following the incident, the obstruction was cleared by 3.15am. 

It's understood that a train was damaged during the incident - which needed repairing. 

During the incident, it disrupted LNER, Lumo and TransPennine Express services.

While LNER put an update out on its social media page, the train that was involved in the collision with the 'obstruction' is unknown at this time. 

In an update on Friday (March 15), Network Rail said that the obstruction involved was an animal, believed to be a deer.

It also highlighted that it was trialling new technology to deter deer away from the rail lines - which would be rolled out across the UK.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Train services between York and Darlington were disrupted yesterday evening after an animal was struck on the railway.

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“Network Rail teams responded to the site to help our industry colleagues and support affected train passengers.

“Network Rail has partnered with LNER to help reduce the number of deer strikes by trialling new AI technology on the East Coast Main Line that deters deer away from the railway.

“The trial has already yielded some positive results and we will continue to look to roll out this initiative to other locations on the East Coast route to prevent further incidents in the future.”