Thousands of passengers caught up in chaos on the rail network after an overhead cable fault in Staffordshire were today finding out how much compensation they can claim for the disruption suffered.

Network Rail is facing paying out thousands of pounds in compensation to Virgin, Cross Country and London Midland for the 36-hour failure, which saw more than 700 trains across the Midlands affected.

Click here to see more pictures.

The line originally failed at around 8.30pm on Monday but, following a repair, the overhead line snapped on Tuesday morning in Penkridge as a train passed under it.
Passengers who lost a day’s pay in hours of delays have been told they are only entitled to a refund to the value of their ticket.

Cross Country said passengers delayed for more than an hour would get a full refund. However, Virgin said customers who boarded affected trains are only entitled to 25 per cent of their fare in travel vouchers.

London Midland referred people to its website, where they must log into personal accounts to find out what they can claim.

More than 700 trains across the West Midlands, as far as Shrewsbury in Shropshire and Crewe in Cheshire were affected with 180 cancelled or terminated before reaching their original destination.

Total delays reached 9,000 minutes – more than six days.