A broken rail caused delays and cancellations on the Brighton line yesterday, forcing some travellers to abandon their train journeys.

There were delays of up to an hour-and-a-half which lasted into the early evening rush hour.

Many passengers heading for London decided to drive or make alternative arrangements.

The trouble began as the morning rush hour ended.

A cracked rail was detected at Preston Park, outside Brighton, putting one track out of action.

It was repaired in time for the main evening rush hour but there was a knock-on effect into the late evening.

Fast trains from Brighton to London were cancelled and at one point more than half the services were not operating.

A spokesman for Southern said: "There were delays of about an hour throughout the day but services gradually got back to timetable during the evening."

There were further problems at Crawley after gates at a level crossing jammed in the down position, preventing cars from crossing rail lines.

Train drivers were warned to watch out for people leaping over the barriers near Crawley station in Horsham Road.

The incident caused huge traffic jams but train services were not delayed.

Police closed part of the road and set up diversions while engineers operated the barriers manually.

The barriers failed at 9.27 am. They were operated manually by Network Rail engineers for two hours before they were fully repaired by 1pm.