Passengers heading to London say they were “dumped back” at the station they started at due to a broken down train.

Just after 7am, Southeastern bosses posted on X that a failure of electricity supply meant trains around Ashford were being delayed.

They then said services were unable to run towards St Pancras from Ashford International because of a broken down train between Ashford and Ebbsfleet.

A limited high-speed service was brought into action but commuters have reported the service being “beyond disruption” hours on.

Laura Archer wrote on X that she, alongside other commuters on the 6.30am service from Ashford to St Pancras, were “dumped” back at Ashford International.

“Absolute CHAOS Southeastern Railway with the 6.30am from Ashford to St Pancras going out of service due to a power fault before even reaching Ebbsfleet,” she wrote.

“Told at 7.44am a rescue train was coming, still (at 8:18) currently stuck on the train in a stand, with no signs of moving.

“To be fair it is beyond disruption now.

“We pay a fortune to commute every single day, it shouldn’t take this long to rectify an issue, particularly at peak time and to then dump people back at Ashford to start over isn’t really good enough.

“Ten mins until the engineers will be here, then goodness knows how long until they can actually attach the rear six to the rescue train… then still to wait for the second rescue train to collect the front six…unbelievable scenes from Southeastern Railway.”

Commenting on KentOnline just after 11am, Ben Cooper, who had been stranded on the train for four and a half hours, said the loss of power meant the air conditioning stopped working.

“The front six [carriages] are still waiting to be rescued,” he said.

“There is a complete power failure on the train with no air conditioning, the carriages are getting hot.

“On top of that, the toilets are not working. It’s been nearly four and a half hours now.”

In their most recent post on X, railway bosses said the line is now clear from Ashford towards St Pancras with disruption easing.

Just after 11.30am, a spokesperson said: “The second set of coaches from the broken down train has now arrived at Ashford, and the line towards St Pancras is now clear.”

Julian Moosai, Southeastern’s Head of Train Service Delivery, said: "Earlier this morning a highspeed train broke down after an issue with the overhead power supply near Lenham.

"The driver of the train worked with engineers to attempt to fix the issue, however it couldn't be resolved and the train was unable to move.

"Two other trains were sent to the location to rescue the train. This process took longer than expected and we're sorry for the disruption this caused.

"We do not underestimate the impact on our customers and we'll be working with Network Rail and High Speed 1 to understand how the fault occurred.

"The line is now open and anyone who was delayed by more than 15 minutes can claim compensation under our Delay Repay scheme."