ROME - After stopping trains Monday morning between the stations of Ottaviano and Battistini in both directions in mid-morning the situation worsened and the block extended to Termini.

 The Transport Agency for the Municipality of Rome (ATAC) described the incident as a “technical failure” and explained that the closure of part of the A line is necessary to allow the work to restore the service. A substitute bus service was activated but, at least at Termini, it was completely insufficient at offsetting the traffic of passengers.

 Scenes of chaos were witnessed in Piazza dei Cinquecento as dozens raced to secure a place on replacement buses of which there are not nearly enough. There have also been reports of a bus driver who did not know the route from Termini to Barberini, causing further havoc, Il Messaggero reports.

 To get from Labar to Flaminio, a route that normally is covered in 20 minutes, this morning there were those for who the route took an hour and twenty minutes with exhausting stops of 20 minutes in each station.

 The railway service returned to normal only around 13.00 after a “technical intervention on the Euclid-Flaminio section.”