Disruption and delays at St Albans City station are likely to continue into the afternoon after the gates were closed to manage crowds.

People were denied entry to the station this morning (Thursday, June 21) to prevent dangerous overcrowding on the platforms.

A Thameslink spokesman said: “For passenger safety we closed the gates for short periods to manage the numbers of people on the platform. Passenger announcements explained this.

“Network Rail have now fixed the signalling problem but we regret that the disruption caused is likely to continue into the afternoon. Tickets are being accepted on local buses and we have arranged additional replacement buses from St Albans.”

Margaret Evans, whose daughter-in-law attempted to catch a train this morning, said: “A long train came in, it stopped, people moved forward to get onto the train and it didn’t even open its doors and went off.

“I get so cross - all those people paying thousands of pounds and they’re treated worse than cattle.”

According to Network Rail, a six-mile stretch of signalling failed at Luton, which meant that no trains could run south of Bedford. This caused significant disruption.

Network Rail, who maintain the track, signalling and power supplies, issued the following statement: “We would like to apologise to passengers experiencing delays this morning owing to a signal failure at Luton.

“Our engineers have now fixed this issue and we are working with train operating companies to recover normal service as soon as possible.

“However, there are still residual delays between Bedford and London St Pancras, so passengers are advised to check their journeys before travelling throughout this morning.”