Southwest Trains will operate a normal service this evening after track and signalling problems caused chaos in the morning rush hour.

A broken rail between Waterloo and Vauxhall was blamed for earlier problems, which saw passengers at Kingston and Surbiton delayed for up to an hour The problem meant trains could only run on one of the two lines in and out of central London.

Richard O’Brien, Network Rail’s route managing director for Wessex, said: “Today has been very frustrating for many passengers travelling by train to and from the south west of London and we apologise for the disruption to their journeys."

Despite extra service stopping at Surbiton station this morning Twitter was ablaze with disgruntled passengers venting their frustrations.

Paul Briant Wrote: “40 minute wait on Surbiton platform for a train I could get on & it's a bloody slow one.

While Huw Langridge posted: “Broken line on the track between Wimbledon and Waterloo. Everyone being turfed out of Surbiton station again, time to move to the country!”