PASSENGERS have had to be evacuated from a train today after it broke down on the East Coast Mainline near York.

CrossCountry said one of its trains broke down just north of Skelton Bridge junction and no services were able to run between York and Northallerton, between 10.45am and 11.45am whilst passengers were evacuated from the broken down train.

"A full service has largely been able to run using alternative tracks, but some journey times have taken longer this morning," said a spokeswoman.

"The broken down train has now been moved, and trains between York and Northallerton are returning to normal. Trains may be delayed by up to 30 minutes or cancelled until approximately 2pm. Passengers should check their individual journeys via nationalrail.co.uk."

Ben Simkin, Regional Director for Scotland and the North East, said: “There was a fault with a CrossCountry train this morning between York and Darlington, which meant that the train was unable to complete its journey.

"We terminated the service and passengers were looked after by onboard colleagues and moved on to an alternative train towards Edinburgh. We’re sorry to customers who were affected and will be in contact with them shortly.”