Passengers stuck in trains for up to two hours because of signal failures at Surbiton, south London, and Waterloo vented their fury at South West Trains as it struggled to restore normal service.
Passengers were forced to stand in the toilet on one overcrowded train, while platforms at Surbiton were packed on Wednesday.
“Only way to describe my experience on South West Trains this morning is in three words: human rights violation. #rammed,” tweeted Mark Tilley.
Others resorted to expletives in frustration at being unable to get to work on time or missing crucial business meetings.
“South west trains you have officially fucked my day. Cheers,” was the pithy and bitter tweet from Ed Cooper.
Passenger Lucy Vose said she left her house at 6.30am and was still nowhere near work after 9am. Another SWT customer, Daniel Green, said his normal 48-minute journey to Waterloo had taken two hours 34 minutes.
One passenger, called Helena, who had to stand in the toilet on a train, tweeted: “I’m now crushed on to a train – standing in the toilets with other commuters. Fantastic.”
Earlier she had written: “Absolute chaos at Woking, where my train from Worplesdon has just been dumped. “
Caroline Harrison wrote: “How can you subject people to this? Yet more signal failures, people rammed in like cattle. Sort it out!”
SWT blamed a signalling problem for the disruption and cancellations.
“Following a signalling problem at London Waterloo, lines have now reopened,” it said. “Residual delays of up to 40 minutes to trains to and from this station while services recover. There is no firm estimate yet of how long disruption will last but it is likely to continue until at least 12.30.”
In all, SWT cancelled 11 trains on Wednesday morning, coming in or going out of Waterloo.
A South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance spokesman said: “Signalling problems at Waterloo and Surbiton have caused significant disruption to our services this morning. This has had a major impact on our passengers and we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused.
“The problem at Surbiton meant all trains towards London had to travel slower than usual, while platforms 8-14 were not available at Waterloo.
“Both issues have now been resolved and we are working hard to recover our normal train services as quickly as possible.”
Dissatisfaction with SWT has led some disgruntled passengers to set up an I hate South West Trains Facebook page.
One entry read: “Well with the warning of signal failures in places so far removed from my station what more should I expect other than delays and across the board cancellations. Which in turn will mean utter fucking chaos as and when a train may or may not actually turn the fuck up! I’m still aghast as to how these failures so far apart can cause such widespread misery. Sort it the fuck out you useless sack of shit!”
Wednesday’s problems followed a power failure on Tuesday which affected services run by the Southern train company.
Last week a major power failure near Clapham Junction in south London – the UK’s busiest rail station – led to some Southern passengers being stuck on trains for more than five hours and 900 people having to be evacuated.
Union officials criticised politicians for failing to make transport an election issue.
Mick Cash, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said: “The absence in this election of any genuine debate on transport policy is shocking. Particularly as during the campaign hundreds of thousands of voters have had their journeys ruined by repeated disruption and breakdowns on both rail and tube.”
Within a few days of polling, the RMT will announce the result of a strike ballot among its members at National Rail in a row over pay. The union would have to give seven days’ notice of any action, raising the possibility of a national rail strike during negotiations over who forms the new government.
Campaign groups and unions have also complained about the lack of debate over the state of Britain’s roads, and on the crucial decision on a new airport runway in the south-east.
