Severe rail delays in Sussex after 'major electricity supply failure'

Passengers were told not to travel in the area between Horsham, Barnham and Worthing. The following stations did not have a service: Amberley; Arundel; Ford; Littlehampton; Angmering; Goring-by-Sea and Durrington-on-Sea.

A Southern Rail statement on social media around 4am read: “There will be a heavily impacted service between London Victoria, Havant and Brighton this morning due to major electricity supply failure.

"There will be a very reduced service between Brighton and Worthing, with no service westwards to/from Barnham and Havant.

"There will be a very reduced service between London Victoria and Pulborough, with no service to/from Pulborough towards Barnham, and Havant.

"There will be a very reduced service between Barnham and Havant.”

Southern said it requested buses from suppliers, ‘to aid where possible’.

A spokesperson added: “You can use your ticket on the following: Stagecoach 500 and 700 services between Worthing and Havant; SouthWestern between Waterloo, Havant, Portsmouth / Southampton; Great Western between Southampton and Portsmouth and Brighton & Hove Buses between Brighton and Shoreham by Sea.”

Southern said ‘most services’ were ‘expected to resume’ from 8am but disruption would continue until ‘later this morning’.

An update at 9.15am read: “Services are now starting to resume, but short notice delays, alterations and cancellations remain possible.

“Please check before you travel this morning. You'll need to allow plenty of extra time for your journey and you may also need to use an alternative route.”

This comes after the train company confirmed that problems were still persisting with the signalling system between West Sussex and Hampshire.

A social media post read: “Please note that if your are using an alterative route or service, you will need to allow up to 30-45 minutes of extra time to complete your journey.”