Mark Davies, who had intended to travel from Kings Cross to York on Wednesday to visit family, said the delays were “frustrating” and “embarrassing”.
Mr Davies, 56, who was travelling from his home in south London with his 15-year-old son, Alec, said Kings Cross was “chaos” at 10.30am and his train was cancelled 10 minutes before its departure time.
He said the train he eventually managed to board was standing room only with passengers from four separate trains on board.
When Mr Davies reached Doncaster the service unexpectedly terminated.
He said: “It’s incredibly frustrating – everyone understands when the weather or other challenges get in the way, but so much of this chaos is avoidable.
“Cancelling trains with minutes to go, empty trains standing on platforms, customers treated like cattle. Our train was packed with people from the US, Japan and beyond, forced to stand in aisles and climb over each other.
“It’s embarrassing and shaming to see the neglect and under-investment in our public services and how that damages our reputation and causes such inconvenience for so many people.”