Severe disruption at London Waterloo as rare Do Not Travel notice issued

A do not travel notice has been issued at London Waterloo as a major signalling issue at the station has caused severe disruption across the network.

Platforms 1-14 are reportedly affected, with National Rail expecting the disruption to last until at least 4pm. Network Rail engineers have fixed the issue but delays to services are still expected for most of the day.

A spokesperson for South Western Railways said: “We have identified the cause of the signalling problem at London Waterloo and it has been fixed, however, we are still advising customers not to travel.

With so many trains and their crews out of position, only a limited number of train services will be reintroduced over the coming hours.”

The latest do not travel notice follows on from another signalling issue near Strawberry Hill that caused delays on July 19. Routes towards Aldershot and Ascot were affected, with South Western Railway authorising customers affected to book their own taxis home ahead of then claiming a refund.

However, South Western Railway has not issued such advice with today’s delays (July 21).

It has however accepting any unused tickets from today, for services on 20 July.

Tickets are also being accepted Great Western Railway services between Salisbury, Westbury, Weymouth and Reading, CrossCountry services between Reading and Bournemouth, and Southern services between London Victoria, Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Central.

Whilst the cause of the signalling failure has not been identified, London and the South East experienced heavy rainfall over the weekend with delays seen across the network in the capital – including on the Elizabeth Line, London Overground and the Great Western main line.