TRAIN services between the North-East, Yorkshire and London were back to normal yesterday after a freak storm led to severe disruption for passengers.
Lightning struck overhead power lines at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, on Wednesday evening, bringing many services to a halt.
Train operator GNER said it arranged several dozen taxis for irate passengers who were stranded at stations.
Some people travelling from Newcastle to Darlington faced waits of up to two hours.
Engineers from Network Rail worked overnight to repair the power cables and GNER said its services were running to timetable again early yesterday.
A GNER spokesman said: "There is nothing you can do to prevent these kinds of things, so what is important is how you deal with them and look after passengers.
"There was disruption, but contingency plans were in place and for those passengers who were delayed and urgently needed to get somewhere, we got them taxis to their destinations."
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