Thousands of people were severely delayed yesterday evening and into the night or had their trains cancelled as a result of the fire in the troughing on the track - the home of the cables that carry the signalling equipment.

East Midland Trains, Northern Trains and Trans Pennine Express services were all affected as the whole network south of the city was left paralysed by the fire at around 4.10pm.

Some passengers were stuck on trains that couldn't move anywhere, while others attempted lengthy and time-consuming diversions.

Some services - including Sheffield to Manchester - were cancelled all together.

The delays meant many people missed out on the all English Champions League football final between Manchester United and Chelsea which kicked off at 7.45pm.

Were you delayed by the rail problems. Let us know by adding your comment below.

Star reporter Richard Marsden was among those affected as he tried to get from Sheffield to Chesterfield on the 4.23pm train.

He said: "We waited for about an hour at Sheffield before being sent off on a long diversion, but we couldn't re-join the route outside Chesterfield because they use the same power supply, so we had to wait again while they manually moved the points over.

"The end result was a journey that should have taken about ten minutes took more than three hours. Everyone was pretty frustrated - people had missed their connections or places they needed to be - but most people apart from a handful remained calm."

Passenger Kevin Meagher was coming in the other direction - having left Derby for Sheffield on Midland Mainline's Master Cutler service at 6.32pm.

He was stuck 15 minutes outside Derby for three hours as his train queued with several others to circumnavigate Chesterfield, Totley and Dore and drop into Sheffield from the north.

Mr Meagher, from Wadsley Park, said he was disgusted with the way the delay was handled by Midland Mainline.

Speaking from the carriage, where he was forced to stand, he said: "There are hundreds of people on this train - it's very cramped and uncomfortable and the shop has almost sold out. There are people standing up and plenty of seats free in first class yet they won't open them up, and we haven't even been offered a free drink of tea or coffee.

"There has been a complete information vacuum - just one announcement when we first stopped - and staff have been told they can't tell us anything.

"There are elderly people, disabled people, people with luggage, and people who have missed their last connection of the night. People are looking very weary and uncomfortable.

"An engineering fault or vandalism on the track can't be helped, but the way it has been handled by the train company can."

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "Engineers worked through the night and managed to solve the problem by 5.48am this morning meaning services will be running as normal today.

"The cause of the problem has been confirmed as a fire in the troughing and that will be reported to British Transport Police this morning."

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