Rail passengers on some of the busiest routes in the country faced fresh delays on Monday because of a track defect.

South Western Railway (SWR) services to and from London Waterloo were hit by the latest problem. SWR services were disrupted last week because of signal failures.

The latest problem was at Wimbledon, and came a day after the new timetable was introduced, with SWR promising new services.

A message to passengers on Sunday evening said: "Due to a track defect in the Wimbledon area, Network Rail has had to introduce an emergency speed restriction and has asked us to reduce the number of services on the mainline we run.

"Unfortunately, due to the length of time needed for the repair, Network Rail can only complete this work overnight on Monday.

"Some of the West of England services (services to Exeter St Davids / Salisbury) will be running between Basingstoke and Exeter St Davids/ Salisbury.

"Other alterations have been made to some of the morning services tomorrow."

A signalling problem on tracks maintained by Network Rail, between Fareham and Hedge End in Hampshire, led to lines being blocked.

SWR said trains running through these stations may be delayed or diverted.