South Western Railway urges passengers to avoid London Waterloo

Rail passengers have been urged to avoid London Waterloo after major signalling problems.

South Western Railway has issued the warning for customers attempting to travel to and from the station, which is the busiest in Britain.

A significantly reduced service is operating on a very limited number of lines and disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Fourteen out of its 24 platforms are currently closed, the rail firm said.

It tweeted: "Our team is on site tracing the fault, which occurred before 04:00, but even if it is fixed soon disruption is likely across the network for some time."

Peter Williams, SWR's customer and commercial director, said: "We are very sorry for the disruption this morning.

"Due to a major signalling problem, which is still under investigation, we are advising customers not to attempt to travel to or from London Waterloo this morning.

"While the problem is in the Waterloo area we do expect the wider network to be affected as trains and their crews will be displaced."

Two services per hour are running between Reading and London, while other stations including Queenstown Road and Hampton Court have no service at all.