Passengers on a key Scotland to London rail route suffered yet more travel misery yesterday when three separate incidents led to delays and cancellations.

Services on the west coast main line were thrown into chaos by two overhead wire problems - one north of Rugby in the West Midlands, the other at Bletchley in Buckinghamshire.

To add to the difficulties, on a line where a £9bn upgrade has just been completed, there was a broken rail between Coventry and Birmingham.

Virgin Trains had to cancel some services and divert others and trains were unable to call at stations between Rugby and Stafford.

ScotRail sleeper services arrived up to an hour late.

The troubles yesterday were the latest in a series of problems to hit the west coast line.

Last week services had to be suspended after a plane crashed close to the line near Stafford, killing three people.

On Sunday and Monday, services were badly affected by an overhead cable problem at Watford in Hertfordshire.

"We share our customers' frustrations at the problems they have had," said a Virgin Trains spokesman.