Leeds station in chaos after train fire

As the return to work began after the latest train drivers’ strike, passengers using Leeds station faced dozens of cancellations due to a fire on a train.

Northern, which runs many of the West Yorkshire hub’s commuter trains, said earlier this morning: “We are aware of a fire on a train at Leeds, some lines are blocked.

“Train services running through this station will be canceled or delayed.

“Emergency services are at the scene and are dealing with the incident.”

No injuries were reported, but thousands of passengers found their trains canceled or heavily delayed.

Services from Hull, Ilkley, Bradford, Skipton and Huddersfield were worst affected, but many other trains were heavily delayed. A departure for Carlisle was over an hour late.

The disruption at Leeds – one of the UK’s busiest stations – is expected to continue into the afternoon.

Passengers were further affected by short-notice cancellations due to staff shortages, particularly on TransPennine Express trains. Early afternoon departures to Manchester, Newcastle, Saltburn, Scarborough and Hull are cancelled.

Other issues affecting travelers include animals on the line at Harrogate and trains arriving late from the depot.

A passenger, Tom Forth, wrote on social media site X: “The fire on the train has now been put out and everyone is fine and it will now take a few hours for Leeds station to catch up with all the trains as we are running it at 100% capacity and have canceled almost all major investments.”

Leeds will be affected by the cancellation of the HS2 line north of Birmingham. Although the eastern side was abandoned in 2021, the western side was still expected to provide services from London to Leeds via Manchester.

A ban on overtime by train drivers belonging to the Aslef union continues until Friday, causing disruption across England.

Some early West Coast Avanti trains to and from London Euston were canceled as a result of the 24-hour drivers’ strike, which ended at midnight.