Sussex commuters were hit by rush hour train delays of up to an hour making many late for work in London.

Signals failure is being blamed for delayed departures and extended journey times on Connex services between the coast and the capital yesterday.

Brighton commuter Stephen Fay, a 51-year-old research technician, said: "Trouble seemed to start from 6am onwards. I was due on the 6.19am but it didn't leave until about 7am and didn't arrive until 8.40am. My boss was not happy. All they did at Victoria was hand out a note admitting the delays and offering £10 vouchers."

Connex media relations manager Dave Ewart said: "There was a severe signalling failure in the Haywards Heath area and this caused us very serious delays."

Responsibility for signalling rests with Railtrack. A Railtrack spokesman said: "Some engineering work being carried out on Sunday night spilled over into Monday morning and this affected the morning rush hour."

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