South Western Railway (SWR) has issued a “Do Not Travel” warning for all services to and from London Waterloo after a major signal failure early on Monday 21 July.
The technical fault occurred at around 7am, causing severe disruption across the SWR network. Trains arriving at and departing from London Waterloo are experiencing delays of up to 60 minutes, with many services cancelled or reassigned to different platforms at short notice.
The disruption is expected to continue throughout the day as engineers work to resolve the issue.
To assist passengers affected by the disruption, SWR has arranged for valid tickets to be accepted on alternative transport services at no extra cost. These include:
- London Buses connecting Waterloo, Clapham Junction, Wimbledon, Surbiton, Kingston, Hampton Court, Weybridge, and Shepperton
- Falcon Buses 28: Guildford via Worplesdon and Brookwood
- Stagecoach South 34 & 35: Guildford to Woking
- Train links between Wimbledon, Clapham Junction, and Waterloo
- Train links between Paddington, Victoria, and Waterloo
- CrossCountry services from Reading to Bournemouth
- Southern services from Portsmouth Harbour to London Victoria, Southampton Central to Havant, and Dorking to London Victoria
- Great Western Railway routes including Guildford to Reading, London Paddington to Exeter St Davids, Basingstoke to Reading, Salisbury to Westbury, and Weymouth to Westbury
SWR has also confirmed that any unused tickets for travel on Monday 21 July will remain valid for use on Tuesday 22 July.
A spokesperson for SWR said: “We apologise for the disruption and strongly advise customers to delay travel or use alternative routes while we work closely with Network Rail to restore normal service.”
Passengers are urged to check travel updates before heading to London Waterloo and to follow official advice as the situation develops.
Originally published by UKNIP.
