Waterloo travel misery after signal failures

Passengers at the country’s busiest railway station suffered travel chaos yesterday because of a series of signal failures and other problems.

South West Trains services to and from London Waterloo were disrupted, delayed or cancelled.

In a message to train travellers last night, the company said: “Over the course of today, we have suffered multiple signal failures and a track defect at Waterloo.”

Stagecoach, which has run the SWT franchise since privatisation, has lost the contract and will be replaced by another operator from next month.