South Western Railway (SWR) has warned customers not to attempt to travel to or from London Waterloo on Thursday following a “major” signalling problem.
The issue had been fixed by Thursday afternoon, but Network Rail Wessex said disruption would last until the end of the day and asked people to continue avoiding the station.
SWR urged customers to check before travelling, and said a “significantly reduced” service was operating to and from Waterloo - one of Britain’s busiest train stations - on a limited number of lines.
⚠️ A major signalling problem that developed overnight at London Waterloo means that a significantly reduced service will operate to and from Waterloo this morning. ⚠️
— SWR Help (@SW_Help) April 13, 2023
We're advising customers not to attempt travel to or from London Waterloo this morning as a result.
Commuters flocked to social media on Thursday to express their frustration, and quiz SWR on how the “severe” disruption would be.
One Twitter user, named Anna, wrote: “Being told train is terminating at Wimbledon! Will I be able to get another one from there to Waterloo or will I have to spend hours on tubes and buses?”
“What a start to the morning,” wrote Jamie Phillips.
Dom Fairlie added: “Already boarded the 6:16 from Sunbury into WAT. I hope I can get home again later!”
Another commuter wrote: “You’re kidding, would have been nice to know before I boarded the 0523 Christchurch to WAT!”
⚠️🚦 We’ve suffered a major power failure to signalling equipment at @LondonWaterloo that means fewer than half the station platforms are usable by trains.
— Network Rail Wessex (@NetworkRailWssx) April 13, 2023
We are advising @SW_Help customers not to travel to or from Waterloo this morning as the disruption is severe. /1
Peter Williams, Customer and Commercial Director at SWR, on Thursday morning apologised for the disruption
“Disruption is expected to last until the end of the day, with significantly fewer services able to run on a very limited number of linesm” he said. “We do expect the wider network to be affected as trains and their crews will be displaced.
“If you are travelling on the wider network please check before you travel using a journey planner. Once again we’re sorry for the disruption.”
Network Rail Wessex says the signalling fault occurred around 3am on Thursday.
In an update on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, its route director for Wessex, Mark Killick, said he recognises the “huge impact” the signal failure has had on passengers, adding: “I’m really sorry for the disruption that we’ve caused.
“We’ve identified the problem and we’ve made a temporary repair, and the signalling has now been restored,” he siad.
“That means that over the next few hours we’ll start to introduce more train services, but unfortunately there will still be disruption for the rest of the day.”
