RAIL watchdogs painted a grim picture of the future for Britain's flagship rail route last night after passengers endured two nightmare journeys in as many days.

They fear overcrowded trains and delays could become a regular feature of travelling as the East Coast Main Line is starved of investment.

Passenger groups spoke out after a second day of delays caused by a failure on the line. They fear a "make do and mend" policy will be adopted after the Government put plans to award a 20-year-franchise for the line on hold.

Without the franchise, a promised £2.9bn upgrade of the route is stalled.

For the second day running, passengers on a GNER London Kings Cross to Newcastle train faced delays because of damaged overhead power cables.

Darlington mayor Isobel Hartley had an arduous trip back from the Queen's garden party at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday which lasted eight-and-a-half hours.

Her journey started at 5.30pm and ended when her train pulled into Darlington at 2am - five hours late.

"It was an absolute nightmare," she said.

"Even so, I think the staff handled the situation really well under a lot of pressure."

The delays were caused when cables were damaged just before 11pm, south of Peterborough.

The 10pm Kings Cross to Newcastle train should have arrived at its destination 1.50am, but bleary-eyed passengers pulled in after 3am.

Railtrack and GNER were investigating the cause of the damaged cables yesterday.

Cables were also blamed for Wednesday night's five-hour delays, but the disruption centred between Peterborough and Grantham.

GNER apologised and said it would offer customers a refund.

But fears remain that unless millions are pumped into the line as soon as possible, delays could become commonplace.

Transport Secretary Stephen Byers has come in for fierce criticism over his decision to award East Coast franchise holder GNER a two-year extension only.

He went directly against the recommendations of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), which had wanted to award a 20-year contract.

Rival bidders GNER and Virgin had promised billion-pound plans to introduce new trains and improved services.

Ernie Preston, secretary of the North-East branch of the Rail Passengers' Committee, said the investment had now been derailed.

"Journey times won't be reduced, equipment won't be upgraded, new trains won't be introduced for at least two years later because of the postponement," he said.

"Similarly, Railtrack can't start upgrading the line until it knows who its customers are going to be."