PASSENGERS were left stranded at stations in sweltering conditions after services into Southampton were left severely disrupted.

Hundreds of commuters and day trippers travelling from London down to the South coast were hit with hours of delays to their journeys last night.

According to South West Trains a signal fault and electricity supply failure were to blame for the disruption.

According to eye witnesses scores of passengers were left stranded at platforms at Basingstoke railway station.

One disgruntled passenger said: "There must be well over 100 people on this platform alone. We are being told that trains delayed due to "extreme weather conditions" and "extreme heat".

"Staff are getting shouted at about lack of information and trains without air conditioning which one man said was over 38 degrees on board.

"Most people are fuming about the lack of info at Waterloo where no trains were coming up on screens. It was chaos."

A statement read: "Signalling problems at Basingstoke mean trains travelling to Southampton/Fareham and Salisbury have to stop at a set of signals and await verbal permission to continue.

"This is causing delays of up to 90 minutes. This is expected until the end of service.

"Platforms 1 and 2 cannot be used, so this means that there are only 2 lines instead of 4 through the station.

"This is causing further delays to trains in all directions.

"Train services may be delayed, or cancelled at short notice or may be diverted to run via Havant.

"Trains may terminate before the scheduled destination/start after the scheduled origin."

We are sorry for the disruption to your journey today."

Passengers took to social media to vent their fury with many using the hashtag DisruptionSWT.

One person complaining included James McVey from the band the Vamps who was delayed by five hours.

Fiona O'Farrell tweeted: "Huge delays bad but lack of info @SW_Trains is unacceptable. #Waterloo a mess, no or conflicting announcement."