COMMUTERS faced unexpected travel chaos this morning as trains were severely delayed or cancelled.

Following days of improvement works at London Waterloo, today was supposed to see all services return to normal, however this was far from the case.

The situation became so desperate that South West Trains urged commuters only to travel if they had no alternative means of transport as trains were cancelled at the last minute in a number of cases.

The UK's busiest railway station has re-opened but with disruption due to a problem with the signalling system.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "During the process of testing the complex signalling, we identified an issue in this safety-critical system which we are working to resolve.

"This will take some time to fix and a small number of early passenger trains may be delayed as a result. We are working hard to minimise delays to passengers, but safely is our number one priority."

London's Waterloo has seen 10 of its platforms shut since August 5 for a £800m project to increase capacity.

The project aims get the station ready for longer trains and provide space for 30 per cent extra passengers during the busiest times of the day.

Andy Mellors, managing director for South Western Railway, added: "I'd like to thank our passengers for their patience over the past few weeks.

"It's clearly been a challenging time but these improvement works will help us deliver the increased capacity needed for the future."