Commuters made their way to the train station in Swindon to be greeted by the message no service due to severe weather.

Would-be passengers arrived at the station to be told that there would be no trains at least until lunchtime.

Commuter Darren Smale, who works at a London-based specialist information service, pays £5,200 for a seasonal travel ticket for his daily trip to London from Swindon.

Mr Smale, 34, was told by his girlfriend that the trains had been cancelled, but decided he would turn up and try his luck.

"I missed the first train just after seven o'clock, but I thought I would wait for the 8.20," he said.

"I tried to phone National Express but they are all full.

"If I can't get to work then I will just have to have some work e-mailed to me and work from home, but I have no idea what I will do tomorrow."

The story was similar for all the passengers turning up at the station.

It was a case of late back to lectures for 18-year-old Rebecca Pryor, who arrived at the station early after a weekend at home in Swindon, to find there was a slim chance of her making it back to Birmingham in time for her afternoon classes at university.

Friends Patsy Henneberry, 18, and Padraigh Ryan, 19, had spent the weekend in Swindon visiting a friend, and were due to catch the train in time for a boat back to Ireland.

They had been at the station since 7.10am and had no idea about the train delays before they arrived.

"We thought we were going to be late for our train so we ran down to the station this morning, and have ended up sitting here waiting for more than an hour," said Mr Henneberry.

But 10 minutes later, Mr Henneberry and his friend were told they would be able to catch a taxi to Fishguard where they were due to catch their boat back, courtesy of First Great Western.

Others who were lucky enough to get a taxi provided by First Great Western were Lisa Reynolds, 22, and Jenny Pitt-Jones, 26, who were waiting at the station for a train to take them to work.

Another two friends, Maria Enright, 25, and Rose Wood, 45, were due to travel to Derby to take part in a fine fragrance course and had been waiting for a train since 7am.

They were concerned they would miss guest speakers from companies like Christian Dior, if they could not get to the Derby Hilton for this afternoon.

After deciding they would wait and see if they could catch a later train, they received the welcome news that they would also be able to get a train to their course in a taxi.

DFS salesman James Arthur was not so lucky.

He has only started working for the company recently as a trainee and is spending time at outlets around the country.