London commuters were hit by another blast of rush hour misery this morning, with some forced to stand in a toilet because their carriage was so crowded.
Passengers on trains into Waterloo were stuck for more than two hours following a signal failure in Surbiton in south west London.
On one packed train, passengers were forced to stand in the toilet because it was so full. Platforms at Surbiton and Woking were swamped with angry commuters.
It came as Network Rail revealed overnight engineering work was behind last week's chaos in Clapham, where passengers were stranded on trains for as much as five hours after a power outage.
One passenger travelling on a South West Trains (SWT) service into London this morning reported having to stand in the toilet on her train.
Helena Unwin-Golding, 25, told the Standard: "It was one of the worst journeys into work I've had - although there has been many bad one!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">I'm now crushed onto a train - standing in the toilets with other commuters. Fantastic <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" data-vars-event-id="c23">@SW_Trains</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/TotT24FOeo" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-http://t.co/TotT24FOeo" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/TotT24FOeo</a>— Helena (@nella_badger) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/nella_badger/status/595857956031352832" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/nella_badger/status/595857956031352832" data-vars-event-id="c23">May 6, 2015</a>
"My 8.20 train from Worplesdon was late and then terminated at Woking. It should have gone to Waterloo.
"So we were dumped at Woking with several other commuters - how this helps alleviate overcrowding on platforms I don't know!
"I then got the third train possible to Waterloo because it was so packed I couldn't get on the 1st two."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" data-vars-event-id="c23">@SW_Trains</a> wtf are you playing at. Scenes at Surbiton this am <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/qxBhWEuFSS" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-http://t.co/qxBhWEuFSS" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/qxBhWEuFSS</a>— Matt Ward (@matsaddress) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/matsaddress/status/595849329610489857" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/matsaddress/status/595849329610489857" data-vars-event-id="c23">May 6, 2015</a>
"I then had to stand in the toilet with 5 other commuters as it was standing room only - again, not unusual for SW trains."
She added: "Being crammed into a train, in hot, sweaty conditions is a less than perfect way to start the day!"
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Absolute carnage at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Surbiton?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/hashtag/Surbiton?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#Surbiton</a> this morning! <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" data-vars-event-id="c23">@SW_Trains</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/Zk0RTdwut7" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-http://t.co/Zk0RTdwut7" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/Zk0RTdwut7</a>— Jennifer Thompson (@JennyT29) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/JennyT29/status/595855259995602944" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/JennyT29/status/595855259995602944" data-vars-event-id="c23">May 6, 2015</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/SW_Trains" data-vars-event-id="c23">@SW_Trains</a> specialising in overcrowding & lack of information <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Surbiton?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/hashtag/Surbiton?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#Surbiton</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/e0SZ8HnBMQ" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-http://t.co/e0SZ8HnBMQ" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/e0SZ8HnBMQ</a>— Kat Beasley (@KatBeaumont25) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/KatBeaumont25/status/595851905714229250" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-52661-https://twitter.com/KatBeaumont25/status/595851905714229250" data-vars-event-id="c23">May 6, 2015</a>
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.
Katie Harrison tweeted: "If you like surprises, travel with SWT this morning. You'll probably be able to get a train but who knows where it'll end up?"
Natalie Taylor wrote: "I could walk to London faster than SWT are going to get me there today."
South West Trains said: "A fault with a set of points at an important junction between Esher and Surbiton is affecting all trains travelling towards London Waterloo.
"Our engineers have been able to make repairs to allow train services to resume, but please expect some recurrent delays. We have also experienced problems at Waterloo this morning with signalling equipment, which means we have had to continue to divert and alter services."
"Both issues have now been resolved and we are working hard to recover our normal train services as quickly as possible."
Additional reporting by PA
