The action caused the activation of a safety device, causing the front wheels to derail, a spokesman said. Commuters experienced major delays on the Illawarra Line in both directions after the derailment at Hurstville station about 4.40pm.

About 150 customers were on board the 3.42pm Bondi to Cronulla service and no-one was injured.

All trains were stopped at Hurstville while RailCorp and emergency services assessed the situation.

It took crews around 30 minutes to safely take customers off the train.

Services resumed through Hurstville at 5.15pm but commuters experienced delays of more than one hour during peak afternoon times.

The driver and guard have been drug and alcohol tested. The alcohol tests returned negative and the results of the drug tests take longer to process.

Were you caught up in the delays? How do you think the situation was handled by authorities?

As part of RailCorp procedure, the driver has been taken off driver duties pending further investigation.