Rail passengers commuting between London and the West Country have suffered major disruption today. A defect has been identified with a section of track outside Waterloo Station.
Trains on some of the country's busiest routes were cancelled or delayed tonight because of emergency 'heat related' engineering work, causing disruption for thousands of passengers.
South West Trains services to and from London Waterloo were hit at the height of the evening rush hour, on one of the hottest days of the year. The disruption was caused by emergency engineering work and signalling problems near Haslemere in Surrey.
There are delays on trains out of Waterloo because of problems with railway lines during the heatwave. Emergency engineering works are needed near platforms 1-4 at London Waterloo to resolve a rail defect.
Heat-related emergency engineering work is being carried out on a track defect, discovered at Waterloo Station earlier this afternoon. As a result, four platforms at Waterloo are not currently in use. There will be disruption to services for the rest of the day.
Trains between London Waterloo and Dorking are cancelled. Customers should travel on Southern services between London Victoria and Dorking. A train shuttle service is in operation between Hampton Court and Surbiton. Passengers will need to change trains at Surbiton.
Services that run from London Waterloo at 50 minutes past each hour to Salisbury / Yeovil Junction / Gillingham are not running between Waterloo and Basingstoke.
Customers travelling from London Waterloo / Woking will need to change trains at Basingstoke or travel on services to Exeter St Davids departing London Waterloo at 20 minutes past each hour. Some services heading towards Waterloo may be cancelled to ease congestion.
#Waterloo Waterloo-Salisbury/Yeovil Jn/Exeter are starting and finishing at Basingstoke. FGW accepting SWT tickets from Paddington