CHRISTMAS lights have caused travel chaos after they were thrown onto overhead power lines.

The lights are thought to have been dropped on the lines from a bridge between Shipley and Bingley stations shortly after 6pm yesterday.

They immediately shorted the power to the lines at Shipley, bringing every train passing through the station to a halt and leading to over two hours of train cancellations.

The problem was exacerbated when some passengers, not wanting to wait on the stalled trains, opened the emergency doors and began walking along the train lines.

The incidents led to many festive revellers missing out on Christmas parties.

No-one is thought to have been injured in the incident.

Northern Rail said the multi track, triangular layout of Shipley station meant multiple routes were hit by the outage.

Trains to and from Bradford Forster Square, Leeds, Ilkley and Skipton were all cancelled, with services re-starting at around 10pm.

Police are now investigating to try and find out who threw the Christmas lights on the lines.

A spokesman for Northern Rail said around 750,000 volts run through the power lines, and that if the culprit had still been holding the lights when they made contact with the lines, they would have likely been killed.

He added: "They shorted the power out to all the Shipley lines. It took app the trains out. Network Rail were called to deal with the issue, and they took about an hour to get there because of traffic. They cleared the line and the service was re-started, all but one train. We then had to rescue that train as it wouldn't re-start.

"Some people on the train had pulled the emergency door release and got out to walk to the station. That really slowed things down.

"Because the power was out emergency lighting had to be used on the train.

"The police are now investigating the incident.

"Obviously it was extremely dangerous, and a lot of people had their nights disrupted."