The public announcement tannoy at York Railway Station was working overtime.

"We are sorry to inform you that the 13.25 LNER service to Edinburgh has been cancelled," it said. "This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time. LNER apologises for any inconvenience."

Barely a minute later there was another announcement, this time from TransPennine Express. "We are sorry to announce that the 13.20 TPE service ...has been cancelled," the announcer intoned. "This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs. TPE apologises for the inconvenience caused."

To be fair, this time the disruptions weren't the fault of the train operators. 

A number of the new Class 800 series Hitachi trains being used by several different train companies had had to taken out of service for checks as a 'precautionary measure' after some were discovered to have hairline cracks in the suspension.

Hitachi has apologised for the disruption, and says it is 'working with partners to resolve this issue as quickly & safely as possible.'

That was little comfort to passengers stranded at York railway station yesterday.

Tom Avery and Dorota Peszkowska had come down from Edinburgh to visit Tom's sister in Hull, who had just had a baby.

Now they were trying to get back to Edinburgh.

They had been advised only to travel if essential. "But we're trying to get home, so that is essential," Tom said.

They arrived in York from Hull to find their connection to Edinburgh had been cancelled. Following advice, they twice reserved seats on later trains - only for both also to be cancelled.

Now they were staring at a notice board which advised passengers for 'Darlington, Durham, Newcastle and beyond' that they could use a replacement bus service leaving from the front of the station every hour.

This was their first journey since lockdown, Dorota said - and it hadn't been a particularly good one.

When their train travelled down from Edinburgh to York a few days earlier, it was three hours late.

They had seriosly considered making the journey by car, but decided to go by train for environmental reasons, Tom said. "Now we wish we had gone by car!"

Simon Bishop, who was trying to get to Crewe, was more resigned than angry.

He had made it this far from Newcastle, but didn't know where to go next. "I'm trying to work out if I can get there (to Crewe) from Derby," he said. "But I don't want to go to Derby if I can't! It's all a bit confusing. But I'm used to it!"

Elliott Jackson was trying to get to Manchester.

"I bought my ticket about an hour ago," he said. "It didn't say anything about the train being cancelled."

Yet cancelled it was. "I'm a little bit annoyed," Elliott said. "I've just spent £20 on a ticket. I didn't expect to find the train had been cancelled!"