RAIL giant Virgin has promised to pay compensation to passengers affected by a series of delays on a 15-hour train journey from Edinburgh to Southampton.

The 06.20 service from the Scottish capital eventually pulled into the South Coast city just before 10pm on Friday night, nearly six hours later than its scheduled arrival time.

Signal failures and a broken-down engine were the main causes for the delay, which also saw passengers having to change trains at Oxford in order to avoid being held up even longer. Virgin said it was not aware of any passengers who had been on the train for the entire journey, but added that anyone delayed for more than two hours would receive a full refund voucher under the terms of its passengers' charter.

A spokesman said: "Anyone who was delayed for longer than that will have their individual cases considered on their own merits to see whether any further compensation is appropriate.''

The train was 21 minutes late leaving Edinburgh Waverley and hit its first problems when a power failure affected signals at Alnmouth, Northumberland.

By the time it left Newcastle upon Tyne it was already three-and-a-half hours behind schedule, but lost only nine more minutes on the stretch from Newcastle to Birmingham.

However, as the train travelled to Oxford, its 35-year-old engine broke down and the seven carriages had to be taken on by a freight train.

Passengers were then transferred to a Liverpool to Poole train, which was also running an hour-and-a half late arriving at Southampton at 9.49pm.