Thieves bring trains to near standstill at Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough during morning rush hour

UPDATE: East Midlands Railway tweeted at 8.30am that its trains between St Pancras and Kettering were expected to start running again “shortly” although it warned: “Trains and crew are out of place so expect alterations and delays for the rest of the morning.”

Thieves stole cable from vital signalling equipment overnight bringing trains to a near standstill between Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough during rush hour on Tuesday morning (August 2).

Operator East Midlands Railway confirmed a raft of cancellations and delays to early services after a loss of signalling in Northamptonshire.

This is affecting both Intercity services to and from London St Pancras and Connect 360 trains from Corby.

A spokesman confirmed: “There was a loss of signalling between Wellingborough North to Kettering last night.

“We have now been made aware this is due to cable theft. Network Rail are on site and are working to fix the problem.

“We were advised that the problem was temporarily repaired but some issues remained and it appears the problem hasn’t yet been fully resolved.

"For us to be able to run a full service more repairs are required. Due to this there will be further cancellations this morning.”

Passengers were stranded on trains for up to three hours overnight as services to Nottingham and Derby were halted after the theft disabled the signalling systems.

Some trains from the south started and terminated at Wellingborough on Tuesday morning. The company publised a list of services affected, although warned more could be affected:

03:57 Derby to London St Pancras - Cancelled04:12 Derby to London St Pancras - terminate Leicester04:47 Derby to London St Pancras - Cancelled05:28 Kettering to Sheffield - Start Leicester 05:5206:06 Kettering to Nottingham - Start Leicester 06:4107:02 London St Pancras to Sheffield - Start Derby 08:3207:35 London St Pancras to Nottingham Cancelled04:32 Corby to London St Pancras Cancelled05:45 London St Pancras to Corby - terminate Wellingborough05:39 Corby to London St Pancras Cancelled06:11 Corby to London St Pancras - Cancelled06:17 London St Pancras to Corby Cancelled06:39 Corby to London St Pancras Cancelled06:47 London St Pancras to Corby - terminate Wellingborough.07:10 Corby to London St Pancras - start Wellingborough07:18 London St Pancras to Corby - Cancelled07:49 London St Pancras to Corby Cancelled08:09 Corby to London St Pancras - start Wellingborough 08:25.08:18 London St Pancras to Corby - Cancelled