RAIL services to Malvern came to a halt for several hours on Wednesday night when the engine of a train caught fire in Evesham.

Firefighters attended the town’s station at 8.50pm following reports of a blaze in the undercarriage of the 19.44 service from Great Malvern to Paddington.

On arrival, they found the fire had already been extinguished, but two crew members used foam to ensure it was fully out. They left the scene at 10.30pm.

First Great Western spokesman James Davis said it was too early to know the cause of the fire, which happened as the train pulled into the station.

He said the flames extingushed themselves and all 14 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. Passengers were then taken to their destinations in taxis.

The train was stationary for about an hour and a half before it was taken to First Great Western’s Oxford depot to be assessed.

There were delays to trains travelling in both directions, with some terminating at stations several stops before their final destinations.

Mr Davis said it was not clear how much of the holdup was due to the fire, given earlier problems on lines caused by bad weather.

Dr Richard Long, of Bromsberrow Heath, near Ledbury, was a passenger on the 18.22 from Paddington which was forced to stop in Honeybourne, near Evesham, while the fire was dealt with.

He said: “The train had already left half an hour late because of the weather.

“When we got to Honeybourne, we stopped and the train manager instructed us that the engine of the train in front was on fire.

“We sat there for about an hour and a half while the fire brigade came and put the flames out and then the engineers had to come make sure the train was safe to proceed.

“We had to get out at Worcester Shrub Hill and change trains to the 19.22 from Paddington. I finally got into Ledbury at about 12.45am – almost two-and-a-half hours late.

“When we had to get out at Shrub Hill there were 57 of us waiting to get to Ledbury or Hereford or Colwall, and so on. There was one complaint – but there was nothing more that the excellent First Great Western could have done.

“They were absolutely splendid and they kept us all informed and invited us to the buffet car and gave us carte blanche to have what we wanted.

“They brought round a sheet for us to write our email adresses on to compensate us, but I shan’t accept it because they were brilliant.”