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The boss of the company responsible for most of West Norfolk's rail services has resigned.

Charles Horton announced his decision to stand down as chief executive of Govia Thameslink (GTR), the parent company of operator Great Northern, this afternoon.

The move follows widespread disruption on the network following the introduction of a new timetable last month and the establishment of an inquiry by the government into what went wrong.

Mr Horton is set to remain in his post for the time being while a successor is appointed.

But he said: “I recognise that passengers have been hugely frustrated at the significant disruption caused by the introduction of new timetables.

"It is the right time to hand leadership of GTR to a new pair of hands. I am immensely proud of my team and I would like to thank my 7,000 colleagues at GTR for all their hard work over the past four years.”

The news of Mr Horton's resignation has been broadly welcomed by politicians and union leaders.

South West Norfolk MP Elizabeth Truss said: "No more delays, cancellations or overcrowding is what passengers want and action needs to be taken by the leadership team to address this."

Labour MEP Alex Mayer said: “I’m glad that Charles Horton has taken the honourable decision to resign following the new timetable debacle, in stark contrast to this Government where the Transport Secretary has refused to take responsibility.

“The Government should apologise for the consequences of the new timetable chaos and the botched privatisation experiment.”

“It is clear that this ideological system for running our trains has failed."

Meanwhile, RMT general secretary Mick Cash called for the franchise to be withdrawn altogether.

He said: "Mr Horton may now have gone but the rotten franchise he was steering remains in place and no change at the top will alter that. This whole basket case operation is a failure on every level."