HUNDREDS of commuters were stranded at Glasgow Central Station today after rail signals failed.

The chaos came hours after work was completed on a new, state-of-the-art safety system.

But rail bosses insist the new system was functioning properly and was not the cause of today's difficulties.

Services on some of the busiest routes were cancelled after line closures at the entrance to Central.

Rush-hour trains that did operate were forced to queue on either side of the River Clyde.

The problems arose within hours of engineers completing four days of work to regulate traffic signals at Central.

Staff were forced to take over from the automatic system and change signals by hand after a series of false alarms were triggered.

A spokesman for First ScotRail said it had to reduce the frequency of trains on the Cathcart Circle, as well as routes to Paisley Canal, Gourock and Ayrshire.

The operator was finally forced to drop some services completely as it waited for news from Network Rail, which is responsible for track and signals.

A spokesman for Network Rail said the new computer system was working properly, and the problem appeared to be with signals installed in earlier work.

He added: "Network Rail is currently experiencing a problem with part of its communications system at Glasgow Central Station and as a normal precautionary measure is manually bringing and despatching trains from the station.

"This has caused a cumulative build-up of trains. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."