Rail services on some of the country’s busiest routes were disrupted by a signal failure on Tuesday, causing travel chaos for tens of thousands of passengers.

South Western Railway (SWR) services to and from London Waterloo, the country’s busiest station, were cancelled or delayed.

The disruption, caused by problems at Wimbledon, were set to last all morning.

The problem led to chaotic scenes at railway stations, with passengers packed onto platforms waiting for information.

The chaos came ahead of four days of industrial action on SWR over Easter by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union in a dispute over the role of guards.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to passengers affected by disruption to services to and from London Waterloo this morning due to a points failure at Wimbledon.

“Our engineers worked through the night to deliver a temporary fix and the line reopened at 0815 this morning. Further work will take place overnight following the end of service today.

“Delays and alterations are expected to continue until the afternoon as we work with South Western Railway to recover normal service in time for the afternoon peak.

“Passengers are advised to check their journeys before travelling.”

Meanwhile, Great Western Railway apologised for disruption which it said was due to a “failed freight service”.

Southern Rail said that while all lines to and from Brighton have reopened, delays and short notice cancellations are expected to continue until 11am.

Network Rail said the problems with trains to and from Brighton was due to a trespasser on the line.

National Rail said there will be major disruption at Brighton until about 2pm.

Even though trains are able to run to and from the station, there could be delays of up to 60 minutes due to trains and crew being out of position.

National Rail have “strongly advised” people to travel later this morning if possible.