A SIGNAL failure caused chaos for Bolton commuters.

Railway staff had to use hand signals to direct trains into Manchester today, following a signal failure.

Vandals or copper thieves are believed to have been responsible for the signal failure, which happened at 7.33am. Cables had been cut near the Agecroft Junction at Clifton in Salford.

It left hundreds of early morning commuters stranded at Bolton Railway Station.

After an hour rail bosses instructed staff to use temporary methods of signalling to direct the delayed trains from Blackpool and Blackburn into Manchester, through Bolton.

Graham Langley, principle transport planning officer for Bolton Council, was on his way to the Network Rail offices in Manchester when he was stranded at Bolton Train Station.

He said: "There is a signal failure between Bolton and Salford and they are having to use hand signals to get trains through. Trains are being filtered through slowly purely for health and safety reasons."

Ten trains were cancelled and 28 delayed before 9.30am. Four replacement coaches had to be called in to ferry workers into Manchester.

Bill Hebenton (corr), from Bolton, who takes the 8.34am train to Manchester Oxford Road station every morning, was delayed by over an hour. He finally boarded a train at 9.49am.

The university lecturer said: "I was here at 8.30am but went for a cup of tea in Sainsbury's for an hour.

"It's an inconvenience for us, especially since trains are so full in the morning anyway. It's just a very poor service."

A spokesperson for Network Rail said: "All the power cables that supply the rail industry are laid in concrete troughs next to the rail line. Each concrete trough has a concrete lid and when rail staff examined the area this morning they found some concrete lids had been moved and the cables had been cut.

"This could have been an act of vandalism or a person trying to extract the copper core. Transport Police are now investigating."

Anyone with information call Manchester Transport Police on 0161 228 2398.