Commuters faced long delays this afternoon after a train was evacuated at High Wycombe Station when a fire broke out in the engine.

Dozens of passengers were forced to wait outside the station after firefighters rushed to the scene following an alert from British Transport Police.

The fire broke out in the locomotive carriage of the 10.45 Chiltern Railways London to Birmingham service, with the rail operator saying delays of "at least 30 minutes" northbound on the line from Marylebone would continue into the afternoon.

But the company assured passengers services would be back to normal by this evening. 

this morning, passengers were evacuated from the train upon entering High Wycombe and said they could smell smoke just after setting off.

One commuter from Birmingham said: "As soon as we left London we could smell burning and when we got into Wycombe they shut the train down and told everyone to get off. We saw smoke coming from the locomotive."

The fire has now been put out and engineers are on the scene.

No one is believed to have been hurt.

Chiltern Railways earlier apologised for the ongoing delay as efforts were made to move the broken down train once the fire was put out. 

Senior communications manager for Chiltern Railways, Suzy Rigg, said: “Chiltern Railways can confirm that there was a small fire on a train at High Wycombe which meant services were cancelled.

“All of our safety procedures were put in place and the train was safely evacuated.

“This incident will cause some ongoing delay to the network, for which we apologise.

“We are accepting tickets for customers who needed to make alternative travel arrangements on Cross Country, Virgin and London Midland."

Trains running after the incident were as much as 45 minutes late while the line was cleared.