Lines have now reopened following a fault with the signalling system at Southampton Central. Whilst service recovers, trains running through this station may still be cancelled, revised or delayed by up to 15 minutes.
Disruption is expected to continue until 09:00.
Southern customer advice:
Southern services to / from Southampton will terminate and restart elsewhere, for instance at Woolston, Chichester or Bognor Regis.
In addition to this, an ongoing fault with the signalling system in the Cosham area is causing delays to services travelling towards Havant, Chichester and Brighton. At present, delays are expected to be around 10-15 minutes.
Please check before you travel this morning, as you may need to use an alternative route or change trains in order to complete your journey. You should also allow extra time - we'd advise at least an extra 20 minutes today.
Tickets will be accepted for no extra cost on the following:
- South Western Railway services between Southampton and London Waterloo, and between Southampton and Portsmouth
- Great Western Railway services between Southampton and Portsmouth
- London Underground via any reasonable route between London Terminals
Planning your journey:
Live departure boards can be found here.
You can view a live map of the network here.
You can also see the alternative route guide here.
If you're travelling in the London area, you can plan journeys on alternative routes by using the TfL Journey Planner here.
You can also use our app to find up-to-date information.
Can you tell me more about the incident?
A track circuit failure is affecting trains travelling in both directions on the route to and from Southampton Central.
This part of the network uses track circuits to detect the position of trains. These are electrical systems which monitor whether a train is on a section of track. They operate as part of the signalling system, which is designed to be "fail safe".
When a track circuit fails, the signalling system will interpret this as a train remaining in place, even though there may not be a train present at all, or the previous service may have long since left the area.
As a result, further trains cannot be automatically allowed onto the relevant section of track. Train drivers will be stopped by red signals on approach. They will then get verbal permission from the signaller so that they can proceed, and will run at a heavily-reduced speed as far as the next signal. This is so that the drivers will stop safely if they see anything ahead of them.
In some areas, the sections between signals can be several miles long, so this can result in delays building up. Even with shorter sections of track affected, there would still be a delay of at least a few minutes to each journey.
Track circuit faults can be caused by a number of different issues, including electronic faults or obstructions on the track. Network Rail manage the signalling system, including track circuits, and their staff will be investigating as quickly as possible.
South Western Railway customer advice:
We have been informed of a signalling problem at Southampton Central. This means that trains may have to run at a reduced speed on some lines.
For further information or onward travel advice please speak to a member of staff or use a station help point.
If you would prefer to use local buses to continue your journey please check Traveline - South Western Railway tickets are not valid on local buses unless stated above.
Check before you travel:
You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.
Compensation:
You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.