HIGHWAYS chiefs have apologised after a rogue set of traffic lights brought misery to thousands of drivers trying to get into Southampton.

Irate motorists were caught in several miles of motorway queues as the morning rush hour turned into gridlock.

It got so bad that Highways England was forced to call in an engineer to operate the new set of lights manually.

After an investigation into the problem, agency bosses say it should be back to normal from today.

The new set of lights are based at the Junction 3 of the M27, where it links with the M271 north of Southampton.

They were initially installed during roadworks over the summer but Highways England was reluctant to introduce a new traffic flow system before the works were finished.

Emily Ford They were launched on Wednesday after months hidden under covers but a glitch in the system on their first night in use caused huge delays for commuters yesterday morning.

The traffic sparked outrage with busy road users, with one driver telling the Daily Echo it was “unbelievable” that one set of lights could cause so much traffic.

The lights broke overnight according to Highways England systems and were switching too quickly for people to get through, causing tailbacks to Junction 1 of the M27 at Cadnam.

The lights became so bad that a Highways England supervisor had to go to the site to control the lights manually and ease traffic.

One driver said: “It’s unbelievable. It took twice as long to do my normal journey today as it did when they were doing the roadworks. So much for it being an improvement.”

Amy Townsley, 22, was also caught in the traffic. She said: “It’s just ridiculous, there is never-ending madness on this motorway it’s always causing grief and the traffic lights aren’t going to help traffic flow at all it will make the journey even more disjointed.”

The tailbacks sparked an investigation by Highways England.

A spokesman said it was expected there would be a few glitches and it was unfortunate it had happened during peak travel times.

He added: “It’s always difficult when you first introduce a new traffic flow system. Once we were notified of the issue we contacted out regional supervisor who then sent a controller down to manage the issue before investigating the cause.”