London Waterloo delays: South Western Railway passengers told 'do not travel' after signalling meltdown

Rail commuters using a major route into central London have been told "do not travel" following a signalling meltdown.

South Western Railway (SWR) passengers using the route into London Waterloo were warned not to travel on Wednesday morning.

The "major signalling failure" is on the operator's main line between Woking and Surbiton, with a total of six lines affected by the problem.

Network Rail said the fault is so severe that trains were "unable to run this line through to Waterloo".

Travel chaos: Crowds at Basingstoke after South Western warned commuters not to travel to Waterloo

Engineers are on the scene but it is not known how long repairs will take.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "Engineers are on site and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

"Network Rail is urging passengers to follow the travel advice issued by South Western Railway which is that all passengers who travel on the main line, and suburban services that run through these stations, should not to travel."

Affected lines

Alton, Basingstoke and Woking to London Waterloo
Exeter St David’s, Bristol Temple Meads and Salisbury to London Waterloo
Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo via Guildford/Basingstoke
Weymouth, Bournemouth and Southampton to London Waterloo
Dorking to London Waterloo
Guildford to London Waterloo via Epsom/Stoke d’Abernon

Many morning services have been completely wiped out and even when the signals are repaired the knock-on effect is expected to last all day adding even more disruption to homebound services on Wednesday evening.

Long distance services from Salisbury were terminating at Basingstoke.

SWR advised passengers who had travelled to Basingstoke that tickets would be accepted on Great Western trains into Paddington.

South Western Railway Strike

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The problem comes amid a five day strike on the operator's trains, with commuters already braced for disruption on the busy route into London.

SWR planned to run two thirds of its normal 1,700 trains a day across the UK’s largest franchise because of the continuing strike by RMT guards.

Early services tomorrow could also be affected by the signal failure if it continues for much of the day because of stock being out of place. That will also add to strike disruption.

RMT strike action will continue to effect services until Saturday in the long running dispute over changes to guard duties and train driver-only operation.

Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday will also see 550 trains a day cancelled and 750 – half the service – on Saturday.

Despite SWR and the RMT saying they are willing to meet for “meaningful negotiations” there are no new peace talks planned expanding commuter misery.

Four more strikes – making nine in all – are scheduled to take place on successive Saturdays throughout next month. These will also cause severe disruption for England International rugby fixtures at Twickenham.

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