HUNDREDS of rail passengers faced chaos on the Glasgow-Edinburgh line today when seven trains were cancelled because of frozen points.

Rush-hour commuters were held up for an hour while services on Scotland's busiest rail line were halted. Plummeting temperatures are thought to have frozen two sets of points at Polmont junction, near Falkirk, at 8.30am.

Several trains in the area were halted for up to an hour as engineers tried to free up both sets of points.

Points on the main Glasgow-Edinburgh line began working 30 minutes later but passengers travelling from Glasgow Queen Street to the capital had to wait an hour before east-bound services resumed.

The other points failure hit services on a branch line to Falkirk Grahamston until 11am.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said: "We're still investigating both incidents. We believe both points failures could be weather-related.

"The points are fitted with heaters which are regularly checked, so we're not sure what's happened."

First ScotRail said seven trains had to be cancelled and hundreds of passengers were caught up in the chaos.

He added: "We want to apologise to customers for the inconvenience."

The disruption left passengers furious.

One Glasgow office worker said: "I and dozens of other passengers arrived at Falkirk High only to be told we would have to walk to Falkirk Grahamston.

"It's a good 20-minute walk and First ScotRail couldn't be bothered to lay on taxis or a bus.

"But when we got to Grahamston we were then sent back to Falkirk High.

"Frankly, staff did not seem at all bothered.

"There was absolutely no customer care."