RAIL passengers travelling to and from Alton on Monday afternoon faced chaos after a train derailment brought services to a halt.

The train, which was out of service and empty, was derailed when a set of front wheels came off the track as it approached the carriage sheds in the siding at Farnham Station.

According to South West Trains (SWT) spokesman, Keith Hawkins, it had been running at low speed and was therefore able to remain upright.

As a result, the power supply was turned off while the problem was dealt with, and all services south of Aldershot were suspended.

A half hourly shuttle service, running between Aldershot and Woking, was put on to assist passengers inconvenienced by the disruption, with a bus service from Aldershot to Farnham, Bentley and Alton.

While the power was restored to the line at around 5 pm, the derailment had a knock-on effect with rolling stock having to be stored in other locations.

For Alton and Bentley passengers the disruption was further exacerbated when TuesdayÕs 06.16 service - a 358 Juniper, developed a fault at Farnham.

Although dealt with, it left no time for the train to travel down the line, leaving Alton passengers stranded.

The incident was seen as a further Ònail in the coffinÓ by the Alton Line UsersÕ Association whose chairman, Chris Campbell, has been swamped with complaints about failing 358 Juniper trains causing yet more delays on the Alton-to-Waterloo line.

According to Mr Campbell, the 06.16 service failed to run from Alton on Monday while on Tuesday there were no trains between 05.38 and 07.25 am leaving early morning commuters ÒfumingÓ.

Such was the feeling that Mr Campbell has been in touch with the Rail Passengers Consultative Committee, urging that either the new Juniper trains be withdrawn or that an engineer should travel on board all trains to deal with any snags.

ÒOver the past 18 months we have had to deal with the worst service on any line in the region,Ó said Mr Campbell who believes that MondayÕs derailment has again served to highlight the need to reinstate two-track working through to Alton.

ÒSWT is talking about reintroducing a half hourly service once the franchise is agreed but at the moment we donÕt have the infrastructure to cope with even a minor hiccup on the line,Ó he said.