HIGH winds and broken down trains caused long delays for hundreds of rush hour rail passengers on two seperate days this week.

The bad weather on Tuesday led to a tree falling on to the track between Burley-in-Wharfedale and Ben Rhydding train stations.

And yesterday, a broken down train near Burley-in-Wharfedale also caused long delays in the morning.

On Tuesday, the Wha-fedale Line was closed immediately as Railtrack staff sent a crew to the site to remove the tree and repair overhead lines whichhad been damaged.

All trains to and from Leeds and Bradford on the line terminated at Guiseley for most of the morning.

The incident happened at 7.40am as a train travelling from Leeds to Ilkley noticed the tree on the line before it reached Ben Rhydding station.

The train was taken back to Burley-in-Wharfedale station leaving passengers stranded until a bus could be provided for them.

A spokesman for Railtrack said: "We got a report at 7.40am on Tuesday morning that a tree had fallen on the line between Burley-in-Wharfedale and Ben Rhydding train stations.

"We sent people out to deal with the tree.

"One train was travelling to Ilkley from Burley-in-Wharfedale when it saw that a tree had fallen on the line.

"It stopped and returned to Burley-in-Wharfedale to unlo-ad its passengers.

"The rest of the trains have been told to terminate at Guiseley where Arriva put on buses.

"We closed the track between Ilkley and Guiseley as we thought it had done some damage to overhead lines."

The incident led to long delays for people using the service.

One commuter, travelling to work in Ilkley from Leeds, was due to catch the 8.02am service, but the train left more than 20 minutes late.

He said that after his train queued outside Guiseley Station for a further 15 minutes, he got off and waited a further 10 minutes for a coach to take him to Ilkley.

He finally arrived at his destination at 9.42am - after an hour and 40 minutes' journey. The train was due in at just after 8.30am. The line was reopened at 10.40am after repairs to the overhead lines.

Yesterday, peak-time morning commuters faced even longer delays.

A spokesman for Arriva Trains Northern said: "The 7.35am Leeds to Ilkley train suffered brake problems between Menston and Burley just after 8am. We got another train to take it into Ilkley.

"Passengers were delayed for about an hour, but it was a relatively quiet train. The next train came along and took it on to Ilkley Station to be repaired."

l A successful driver recruitment campaign by Arriva has led to an announcement that approximately two thirds of withdrawn trains will be restored starting this week. A full service is set to resume with the start of the summer timetables on June 3.