PASSENGERS faced chaos yesterday after a derailment on one of the country's busiest rail routes.

Thousands of passengers faced severe delays after the early-morning derailment of a freight wagon on the East Coast Main Line, and the misery is likely to continue until mid-afternoon today.

No one was hurt in the incident, which took place at 2.43am, but it led to the closure of the passenger line between York and Doncaster.

As engineers worked to open the line, passengers heading north and south faced long delays and diversions.

Some services were diverted through Leeds with a shuttle bus service to York.

The derailment took place at the Joan Croft junction at Thorpe-le-Balne, near Askern, a few miles north of Doncaster.

One wagon in the middle section of the EWS-operated freight train derailed, knocking the front of the train on to the main line and damaging points.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "It was a minor derailment. One set of wheels on the 17th wagon out of 27 derailed and blocked a junction on the East Coast Main Line."

A crane was taken to the site to remove the wagon while engineers investigated the cause of the incident and assessed damage caused to the track.

Services as far north as Edinburgh and as far south as London were affected.

Among the worst hit were Virgin's cross-country service and GNER's London-Newcastle-Edinburgh route.

A GNER spokesman said: "We are running hourly services between King's Cross and Doncaster, and then an hourly service connecting York with Newcastle and Edinburgh.

"We are also running an hourly diesel HST service between Leeds and York, supplemented by other operators agreeing to take our passengers.

"This is delaying people's journeys by between 60 and 90 minutes, and we can only apologise for the inconvenience."

Network Rail estimated it would be at least this afternoon before the line could fully reopen.