Commuters faced delays getting to work after a major UK railway line closed for Monday morning’s rush hour because a train was partially derailed when it hit an object on the track.
South Western Railway (SWR) said it cannot run any trains between Woking and London Waterloo, after a service heading into the capital struck something in the Walton-on-Thames area of Surrey at around 5.30am.
Disruption is expected to last all day and could affect other lines, SWR said on X.
The train was passing through an area where engineering works took place over the weekend, Network Rail said.
No one was injured in the incident and all passengers were taken off the train safely, a company spokesman said.
Lines through the area are blocked while investigators carry out checks on the stretch between Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge to find out what happened.
The spokesman said in a statement: “Early investigations show the front wheels of the train are derailed, therefore it’s likely to take us some time to get the railway reopened.
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“We’re really sorry for the disruption and will update customers on the repairs and timescale for reopening as we know more.”
The train that hit an object was one of the first to travel through the area after Network Rail carried out maintenance work on the line over the weekend.
Network Rail Wessex posted on X a picture of one of the wheels, showing it had left the track.
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It has not been confirmed whether the object was involved in this work.
Services are expected to be disrupted for the rest of the day, and other services may be affected, too, SWR said on X, as it urged customers not to travel.
It comes a day after rail fares across England and Wales rose by nearly 5%.
