Waterloo station delays: South Western Railway commuters warned of fresh bout of delays on Tuesday morning

Commuters travelling through London Waterloo have been warned of another bout of delays during Tuesday morning rush hour.

Huge crowds gathered at the station concourse on Monday night as nearly all trains in and out of the station were either cancelled or delayed following a fire next to the railway line.

Services across the whole of South Western Railway’s network were disrupted with many people complaining they had been stuck at the busy commuter hub for hours.

The station – which is the UK’s busiest with an average daily footfall of 250,000 people – became so packed it temporarily closed, forcing disgruntled passengers to stand outside in the cold.

National Rail tweeted on Monday night: “There may be some delays and short-formed services tomorrow morning due to trains and train crew displacement.

“More information and advice will be provided as soon as it is available.”

The problems were sparked by a lineside fire on Monday morning.

The fire affected "a number of lines" outside the station. Track circuits damaged a 650-volt cable which exacerbated the problem.

Platforms one, two and three were blocked, leading to a mass “build up” of trains at the station. Platforms four to nine were also temporarily closed while engineers carried out equipment checks.

The worst-hit lines were the routes between Waterloo and Hampton Court, Chessington South and Dorking which were cancelled.

All mainline trains towards Waterloo terminated early at Clapham Junction while West of England services only ran as far as Basingstoke.

Photos from the station on Monday evening showed the station concourse packed with passengers staring at departure boards carrying the bad news of delays and cancellations.

Passengers took to social media to complain of the temperatures as they waited at the station for trains to take them home on one of the coldest nights of the year.

South Western Railway, which apologised for the problems, reassured commuters that tickets dated today are valid to be used for travel tomorrow.

“We strongly advise that you allow extra time and please check your journey before you travel,” the operator tweeted.

“If you have not been able to travel today you may use your rail ticket tomorrow - same ticket restrictions will apply.”

A spokeswoman for SWR told the Standard the station had opened up some international platforms to help get trains moving.

Scores of passengers took to social media to complain of their journeys.

Journalist Lizzie Dearden tweeted: “I’ve been in Waterloo for more than three hours.

“I got on a train, it hasn’t moved for 20 minutes and now they have literally turned the train off and back on again to make it work.”

Another woman, called Meg, said her journey from London to Guildford took her four and a half hours, while passenger Doug Borland called it “absolutely shambolic”.

Michelle Auchinachie said: “At this rate it will have taken longer to get from Waterloo to Reading tonight than it did from Berwick to Kings Cross."