RAIL passengers are still being urged not to travel to London Waterloo station this evening – and they are being asked to avoid the busy London station tomorrow as well.

Services between East Hampshire and the capital and Portsmouth have been disrupted all day following the derailment of a train at Waterloo before this morning’s rush hour.

Work to ‘re-rail’ the train has continued this afternoon and once this has been done the track will need to be assessed for further damage.

A statement issued by Network Rail said: “South West Trains and Network Rail are currently advising passengers not to travel to and from Waterloo today or tomorrow (Wednesday) after a passenger train struck a stationary barrier train at very low speed and became partially derailed at 5.40am this morning.

“Work to ’re-rail’ the train is under way this afternoon. Network Rail will then need to examine what, if any, damage was caused to the track.

"The incident happened as the train was pulling away from its platform at Waterloo. There were no injuries to the 23 passengers or two members of staff on board the train.

"The barrier train was in place to separate the ongoing engineering works at Waterloo from the operational train services.

"A very limited service is now running to and from Waterloo, which is expected for the rest of today and tomorrow.

"An investigation to establish the cause of the incident is under way. It would not be appropriate to speculate on the cause of the incident at this time.

"Upgrade work to extend platforms at Waterloo continues."

If you have to travel, passengers are being advised to check for service updates before they set out on their journey – visit www.southwesttrains.co.uk