SIGNALLING faults between Haslemere and Petersfield caused major disruption for South West Trains passengers on the London Waterloo line over the weekend.

Apart from major inconvenience caused to commuters between last Thursday and Friday, the delays on Saturday meant passengers headed for Waterloo to take part in the big charity Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 cycle race, arrived hours late.

Frustrated passengers took to Haslemere Rants Facebook page to vent their anger: “My trip to watch the London bike ride was thwarted by almost a three-hour delay due to trains still not running to a normal timetable on Saturday morning,” one passenger posted.

“I felt sorry for those at Haslemere station who were actually taking part in the race – who like me had to wait a few hours for very crowded trains to turn up on Saturday.

“But a very big thank-you to the staff at Haslemere station.

“They were sadly kept in the dark about what was going on but tried their best to be cheery and polite about the whole chaotic mess, and a triple thank you to Network rail staff for sorting out the sorry mess.”

Arthur Pretorius, customer service director South West Trains – Network Rail Alliance, apologised on Monday to all those affected and explained the cause of the problem.

“I would like to say how sorry I am for the significant disruption you may have experienced over the past four days when travelling between London Waterloo and Portsmouth via Haslemere,” he said.

“On July 30, at 2.54pm, the signalling system that reports the location of trains on the route between Haslemere and Petersfield stopped functioning correctly.

“Trains were able to continue to operate safely, however this required a number of alterations to the train service during the evening.

“After investigating the issue, our technical team was able to ensure trains ran normally on the route from 7pm.

“Unfortunately, between 2pm and 4pm the same day, two trains in the Fratton area reported faults and damage. Our response teams checked the area and identified the cause as a piece of scrap metal, which was removed from the track.

“Collectively, these two incidents led to significant disruption throughout Thursday evening and the need to provide replacement transport between Woking and Fratton.

“The following day at 10.55am, the signalling equipment between Haslemere and Petersfield again stopped working. Our technical team found significant new electrical damage in a line-side signalling equipment cabinet.

“Because of the extensive damage and the repeated failure of the equipment, we were unable to resume the train service between Haslemere and Havant and replacement transport operated for the rest of the evening, while most trains diverted to and from Portsmouth via Eastleigh.

“Our technical teams worked throughout Friday and drafted in additional resource to repair the damage to cabling and equipment. Replacement parts were sourced from around the country, however the work required was extensive.

“Initial estimates suggested services would not be able to resume until Monday, August 3.

“However, through extensive efforts by our technical team enough progress was made in the repair work by Saturday to allow us to run a reduced service from 10am to 8pm between Guildford and Havant.

“This was supplemented by replacement transport in the early morning with standby vehicles on-site throughout the day. By 9pm on Saturday, the technical team had completed repairs and we were able to continue operation of trains for the rest of the evening with reduced disruption.

“We have taken steps to prevent a recurrence of the issues affecting the signalling equipment and we expect services to operate normally in the week ahead.

“Thank you for your patience and understanding while we worked to resolve these issues.”

Haslemere Rail Users Group received many complaints from people caught up in the disruption and its secretary Martin Odell claimed official announcements made at the time were “inadequate”.

In February, the group responded to Network Rail’s Wessex Rail Route Study Consultation covering its strategy from 2019 to 2024 saying: “From a rail users’ point of view a glaring strategic omission is the elimination of ‘signal failures’ as the cause of delays, one would have thought that would be a very desirable safety ambition as well.

“We believe the concept of individual responsibility and accountability needs to be implemented at Network Rail and which should include assessment of engineering works and their timely completion as well as safety in general.”

Mr Odell told The Herald: “It won’t be until next franchise, sadly delayed to 2019, that train operating companies will be obliged to put passengers’ interests first, well at least further up the list.

“One way to ensure this is to have a permanent fleet of buses on standby ready at some central location to promptly assist those delayed and disrupted, not hours later if and when the transport can be found.

“Whenever we have raised this topic with South West Trains and the Department for Transport, it has been shot down as too expensive. Yet no one has ever costed out the project, considering the obvious benefit to passengers.”