SOUTH West Trains is advising people not to travel to London this morning following major delays caused by a signalling fault.

The problem led to the closure of lines between Wimbledon and Waterloo, resulting in rush-hour misery for commuters heading to the capital from Southampton and other parts of the south.

The lines have now been re-opened but delays of up to 60 minutes are expected to continue until noon.

Passengers planning to travel beyond Woking are being urged to stay at home until their journey is absolutely necessary.

A South West Trains spokesman said: “We are advising people not to travel to London if they don’t need to. The fault was detected just before 5am and was resolved pretty quickly by Network Rail but there’s a significant knock-on effect due to the sheer volume of services we run at that hour.

“The network is very busy and passengers are facing significant delays.”

In a statement to customers South West Trains added: “Major signalling problems this morning between Earlsfield and Wimbledon meant we were unable to run trains.

“Our engineers have fixed the fault and been able to restore signalling power to all lines.

“We are working to restore our normal train service and are formulating a train service plan which will be communicated as soon as it available. We are advising passengers not to travel beyond Woking to London as we cannot guarantee a train service this morning.”

“South West Trains ticket holders can use Thameslinks, First Great Western, GTR, Southern Railway and Cross Country services via any reasonable route.”