Artwork showing a skeleton driving a train and a commuter appearing to fall on to the tracks has been pulled from its planned rail station exhibition amid fierce criticism.
The image was one of many featured on a frieze for a controversial sculpture planned for St Pancras in London.
However train drivers and families of suicide victims condemned the parts of the controversial frieze because its insensitivity to those who have died on the rail network.
It was due to be installed at the foot of The Meeting Place - the 30ft sculpture of a couple embracing - which was unveiled at the station last year.
But the chief executive of London & Continental Railways - which owns St Pancras - has issued instructions for work to be stopped on the basis that the image was 'completely unsuitable'.Rob Holden is said to have been shocked at the sculpture's concept, having only discovered what was planned over the weekend.
A spokesman for the company said: 'The frieze as originally suggested will not go ahead and work on it has stopped.'
He added that the particular image could be replaced with something else to enable the frieze to go ahead in an amended form, but that no decision had been made.
grim reaper
Other images featured on the frieze include soldiers going to war and emergency workers dealing with the 7/7 bombings - an attempt to depict real-life on the railways through art.
London & Continental Railways commissioned the work and discussed the plans with sculptor Paul Day.
The 41-year-old sculptor said he hoped for a solution because the artwork would be incomplete until the frieze was added.
He said: 'I sent drawings to LCR in July and have had meetings with people at the level below Mr Holden to talk about the reasons for the images. I welcomed constructive criticism to make my work more appropriate and powerful.
'I am disappointed that Mr Holden appears to have been kept out of the loop.
'I have always been open, honest and transparent. I am not an artist who seeks to shock.
Mr Day, who is based in France, said the image was created in a tragi-comic style meant to be a metaphor for the way people's imaginations ran wild.
He added: 'The imagination and real life are often intermingled.
'It's a work of art with a joyful composition, like a ballet, albeit with a subject matter that on face value is tragic.
'Tragedy in art is about creating hope out of drama - through the beauty of the image but also by going beyond the image.'
Mr Day said his current St Pancras sculpture - the embracing couple in The Meeting Place - represented the ideal, while the images planned for the frieze depicted the counter-balance of emotions and experiences of real-life and people's imaginations.
He added that it was meant to be thought-provoking and uplifting.
He said: ''The whole relief is about railways, people and journeys.
'Any separation makes us aware of the value of what we are losing and puts things into perspective.
'I trust the public to be intelligent enough to appreciate the way in which the images were intended.'
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