RAIL passengers in Banbury experienced delays of more than an hour yesterday following signalling problems.

Due to a problem at Leamington Spa, passengers were left waiting up to 90 minutes for their trains between London and Birmingham.

Some trains were cancelled altogether and passengers were urged to check their journey carefully before travelling.

Engineers came on site at about 10.30am to work on fixing the issue and service resumed at about 11.30am, with a warning that there could still be delays.

Routes affected by the signalling problems were Chiltern Railways between London Marylebone, Banbury and Birmingham Moor Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Kidderminster.

First Great Western (FGW) trains between Banbury and London Paddington, and Oxford, were also affected.

Passengers have been warned they might experience more delays over the bank holiday weekend as another strike is due to go ahead.

There was doubt over whether the strike by RMT (rail, maritime and transport) union members would go ahead but it was revealed yesterday that talks between workers and First Great Western had not led to an agreement.

FGW will be introducing Hitachi Inter City Express trains at the end of 2017, which will run through Oxford on the route from Paddington to Hereford and Worcester.

Members are due to walk out for three days from Saturday – an action which will disrupt trains running from London to South Wales and the South West.