Thousands of Black Country rail passengers faced huge delays today as a signal failure brought travel chaos to the region.

Hundreds of Sandwell commuters were among those hit by the disruption.

It stemmed from a problem on the line outside Wolverhampton.

Scores of trains were delayed by up to two hours as the fault meant all trackside signals in the area went red as a fail safe precaution.

Services from Smethwick Rolfe Street, Galton Bridge, Rowley Regis, Sandwell and Dudley, Dudley Port and Tipton, as well as all Birmingham stations, were affected and the problem had not been fixed by 11am.

Southbound trains from Stafford and Shrewsbury were also held up.

The fault was first spotted at 4.18 am. Staff thought that they had traced the source five hours later and replaced a cable but that did not solve the problem and the cause had still not been found seven hours later.

Virgin, Arriva Cross Country, Arriva Trains Wales and London Midland trains due to run through Wolverhampton were all affected in both directions.

London Midland customers were allowed to use tickets on the Midland Metro tram and buses.

Office worker Adrian Tennant, aged 27, from Birmingham, said: “It was incredibly frustrating.”

Network Rail spokeswoman Sam Kelly apologised to all passengers.