A water company is facing a multi-million pound bill after a burst water main damaged railway lines, causing delays to hundreds of trains.

Thames Water has apologised for disruption to services across the Govia Thameslink line, which passes through Radlett, Elstree & Borehamwood, Mill Hill Broadway and Hendon.

More than 50,000 litres of water poured into the track at Farringdon station last weekend and although Thames Water claims to have fixed the problem, water is still leaking onto the track.

Bosses say four extra leaks have now been spotted and that as a result, passengers will experience severe delays to all services this evening. Trains between Farringdon and Kings Cross are also cancelled.

More than 1,000 trains have been cancelled since Friday and commuters have faced 133 hours of delays.

Stuart Cheshire, passenger service director for Thameslink, issued a stark warning to Thames Water urging the firm to take action.

He said: “Passengers have been very patient but like us, that patience has been utterly exhausted. These recurring leaks have got to stop.

“Our passengers want reliable service and we want to give it to them. Tonight, our passengers will have another very difficult journey home. We will have to thin out or services before cancelling them altogether between St Pancras and Farringdon.

“We are arranging for buses to run between the Great Northern Route and Thameslink as well as for our tickets to be accepted by all other operators.”

Phil Verster, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “Passengers have suffered a lot this week as a result of Thames Water’s burst and leaking pipes.

“We continue to work with Thames Water but the overwhelming extent of the continued flooding made it unsafe to run normal through services between London St Pancras and London Blackfriars since Sunday.

“We have several high output pumps operating but the service is still hugely delayed. We expect Thames water to reimburse passengers, train operators and Network Rail for the significant consequences of these water leaks.”

Thames Water said it would work round the clock with Network Rail to manage the water levels and a special team are carrying out full assessments of the pipe and checking roads for other leaks.

Chris Featherstone, head of operational control at Thames Water, said: “We’re very sorry for the delays commuters have experienced since Friday.

“We know this is a critical job and we’ve got our best teams working as fast as possible to discover where this water is coming from. We’re investigating every possibility, including checking all our sewers and water pipes in the area, and we will leave no stone unturned to find out what is happening in that tunnel.”

Engineers are also testing water pipes in the area as part of investigations to find out where the second problem has come from.

Mr Featherstone added: “We’d also like to extend our apologies to any customers affected by road works or fluctuations in water supply while we test the pipes. We’re doing everything we can to sort out this problem.”

Passengers can claim compensation for their delayed journey at http://hameslinkrailway.com/delayrepay