PASSENGERS have experienced 'totally chaotic' journeys to London today after the East Coast Mainline was blocked by overhead power lines coming down.

LNER said it was experiencing major disruption to services due to damage to the overhead electric wires between London Kings Cross and Peterborough.

“All lines are blocked and are expected to remain so for the rest of day," it said.

"As a result of this, trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 120 minutes or revised. Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.

"Due to the severity of today's disruption LNER are advising customer's Not To Travel between London Kings Cross and Peterborough and asking customers not to go to the station.

"For services north of Peterborough we will operate a very limited service however this will be subject to disruption and short notice cancellations.

"Customer who wish to defer their travel can use their ticket at no extra cost on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th July, please note it is not possible to use your tickets tomorrow due to a reduced timetable in operation as a result of industrial action."

York resident Steve Harris, who was on a day trip to London, said he arrived at St Pancras station at 1pm, having travelled via Derby.

"It was total chaos, we stood all way," he said. "Nobody could get on at Donny, the train was full.

"We should have been on the 09:33 train from York. The problems started for us around 0.915  and we were told go via Derby.

"We're here for the day to see a show at 14:30 and due to catch the 19:00 train back but announcement says all LNER trains are cancelled out of / into Kings Cross."

Steve, who runs the York minibus firm Anytime Travel, added: "The advice is not to travel so may have to use one of my minibuses - lol."