Train disruption latest: Passengers across southern England warned of ‘major’ delays after radio fault – UK Times

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder writes:

The busiest station in the UK for “normal” trains (excluding the Elizabeth line) is London Waterloo.

It is the hub for state-run South Western Railways.

Data from RealTimeTrains.co.uk shows delays of over an hour beginning at around 9am, with trains from Reading, Portsmouth and Honiton in Devon arriving over an hour behind schedule.

The train due in from Windsor at 9.23am finally arrived at platform 14 at 11.09am, nearly two hours late.

Many trains due to operate were cancelled due to rolling stock, drivers and guards out of position.

Even though the systemwide fault is now fixed, delays and cancellations are likely to continue into the afternoon and possibly affect the evening rush-hour.

The compensation bill for delay repay is likely to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds on South Western Railway alone.

If you have been affected by this morning’s rail disruption, we want to hear from you.

Get in touch by emailing [email protected]

National Rail has said disruption towards Haywards Heath is expected until 1pm.

The operator said passengers can travel on the following lines at no additional cost:

• Thameslink services between London and Brighton
• Southern services between London and Haywards Heath

The radio fault that took train lines down this morning also occurred in December 2024.

The nationwide fault was linked to faulty GSM-R radio systems, which allow communication between train drivers and signal operators.

Widespread delays also took place in 2024 as a consequence of the radio fault.

Speaking to Sky News during the 2024 disruption, railway journalist Nigel Harris said the fault was “very, very rare” and something he had not experienced in 40 years of working in the industry.

Train journeys are often disrupted, as we can see from today’s travel chaos with South Western Railway. Passengers who are caught up with long delays and cancellations are entitled to a partial refund – or the full cost of the ticket for a really long delay.

But the rules are complex and change from one train operator to another. And Eurostar, which runs trains from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, has a quite different policy on delays.

Travel correspondent Simon Calder has the key questions and answers:

Gatwick Express has said the fault with the radio system “has now been resolved” but services can still expect delays or cancellations.

A statement on their website said: “The fault with the radio system between the driver and the signaller that is affecting services on the South England network has now been resolved. Some services may still be delayed by up to 90 minutes or cancelled whilst service recovers.

“Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.”

Train services across southern England are being disrupted by a fault with a radio system.

National Rail Enquiries said the issue relates to how train drivers and signallers communicate.

South Western Railway warned that services across its entire network “may be cancelled, delayed by up to 90 minutes or revised”.

It said: “Our operations and engineering teams are working with signallers to find and fix the fault.

“We do not have an ETA (estimated time of arrival) yet for when signalling will be back to normal.”

The operator advised passengers to consider using buses “while the fault is being investigated”.

The affected operators are CrossCountry, Gatwick Express, Great Western Railway, London Overground, Southern, South Western Railway (SWR) and Thameslink.

The incident was reported shortly before 9am on Thursday.