Rail commuters in Swindon faced more delays today after a goods train crash.

Two trains collided near a road bridge in Bristol early this morning. A driver is understood to have suffered head injuries.

First Great Western was running a half-hourly service between Swindon and Paddington but there were none to or from South Wales.

The company warned passengers to expect delays until the site of the crash could be cleared.

The accident came as services in and out of Swindon were returning to normal after severe storms, although commuters had already been warned to expect more disruption over the coming weeks.

As floodwater dispersed and fallen trees were removed from the line, First Great Western was able to run more services than the limited emergency time-table it was forced to introduce because of storms.

But many sections of track are still badly damaged by the weather and First Great Western still has to complete its programme of re-railing introduced in the wake of last month's Hatfield crash.

This means that even on those services which have been re-introduced there will be delays because of continuing speed restrictions.

A speed limit of 20mph is still in force on a section of track to the west of Swindon station, and at Pewsey, which means delays to many services.

Safety repair work had been hampered by the gale force winds and driving rain which swept the county and was only just beginning to get back on track.

Problems caused by the weather such as flooded tunnels and damaged lines have had to be made a priority and tackled first.

But even these are not yet all sorted out because the damage has been so severe.

Yesterday, Railtrack sent out a machine to inspect the Swindon to Standish line the Cheltenham route where problems at the Sapperton Tunnel at Stroud mean services cannot run because track has been washed away.

It also inspected the line between Wootton Bassett to Badminton to find out whether track had been lost there.

Railtrack is urging passengers to be patient but many are infuriated by the problems.

At Swindon station travellers said safety repair work should have been carried out in phases months ago. Peter McGrath, 25, who was returning home to London after visiting friends in Swindon, said: "Surely these cracks didn't just appear in the last week since the Hatfield crash. Why wasn't something done about them before now?"

Ian Anderson, 38, from Wootton Bassett, who was also travelling to London, said: "I think safety must be addressed but this should have been done 10 years ago. Rail passengers are getting a shoddy deal."

Railtrack spokeswoman Jane Terry said: "We have not made as much progress as we had hoped with the safety repairs to track because of the weather. It will take weeks but we won't have problems until Christmas."

"We are getting it done as quickly as possible."