Damaged rails were found on three Great Western lines through Oxfordshire in the space of one week.

Two cracked rails were found last week between Oxfordshire and London and one between Oxfordshire and Swindon.

Network Rail said investigations were under way and safety was its "highest priority".

A rail broke at Iver last Tuesday due to corrosion at the base of the rail.

 A contributing factor was a ‘wet bed’ where the ballast can become clogged after heavy rain. With the broken rail free to move up and down, damage was caused to the sleeper.  

Repairs were carried out and this stretch of track is due for renewal at Christmas. 

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A cracked crossing was found at Slough on Sunday during a recent run of Network Rail's inspection train.

A speed restriction was put in place until successful repairs were carried out on Sunday night. 
 
And a cracked rail was discovered at Bourton near Swindon on Saturday.

Repairs have also been carried out to a cracked rail between Swindon and Didcot and an investigation is currently taking place into the cause. 

A spokesperson for Network Rail, who manage and maintain the infrastructure, said: “The 200-plus miles of track between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway is one of the busiest railway corridors in the country, running more trains than ever before with the full opening of the Elizabeth line. 
 
“We proactively inspect all our track assets - with our measuring train scanning the track every month and teams going out to all key assets to inspect at least every 14 days. 

“Safety is our highest priority and in each of these issues, as soon as they were reported we put in emergency speed restrictions.

"We have strategic spares to replace track when this happens.

"We don’t believe this is a trend problem, but we’ll be doing additional inspections to continue running a safe railway for customers.” 

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A spokesperson for GWR apologised to customers affected by these issues over the past few days.

He said: "Network Rail teams worked over the weekend to fix the tracks, which meant we weren’t able to run as many trains as planned. This also led to knock on delays and cancellations to other services in the area.  

"We continue to work with Network Rail as they seek to provide the consistent and reliable infrastructure our trains depend on.

"Customers affected by the delays are likely to be entitled to compensation, and should visit gwr.com/delayrepay for more information."