TRAIN passengers have suffered a morning of delays after signal failure on the line between East Lancashire and Greater Manchester.

Network Rail said there was a signalling problem between Blackburn and Bolton that was discovered at around 5am.

Commuters have had to endure cancellations or delays of around 40 minutes.

It follows problems last night in Darwen that saw replacement bus services running after another signalling problem.

And it came just a day after huge delays on the line between Burnley and Colne on Monday following the theft of copper near Burnley Manchester Road station.

Network Rail said there was no copper theft involved in the problem between Blackburn and Bolton.