Hour-long rail delays to last most of day as engineers tackle signal failure between Purley and East Croydon

Furious passengers aimed fire at rail operators this morning with some complaining of being stuck motionless trains for up to 60 minutes.

Southern and Thameslink services are expected to be disrupted until 2.30pm due to a signal failure at South Croydon.

Transport for London are accepting rail tickets on the route 405 bus during the problems, which have caused some northbound lines to be blocked.

#southcroydon stuck on the train now for an hour and gone 6 miles should have been in a meeting at 1015 in London not sat in Coulsdon

— Rich Oram (@trickydickyo) December 15, 2015

@SouthernRailUK 45 minutes to get from Purley to east Croydon. I can walk it faster than your trains!

— Jay (@JayJohnson1989) December 15, 2015

Stuck on a train #purley @SouthernRailUK #signal problems #ruinedmyday #missedappointment

— Hannah Denham (@HD_Leatherhead) December 15, 2015

Thirty minutes of delays so far and not even a rumour of an on-train announcement. The driver is probably asleep... #SouthCroydon

— Jeff Coventry (@CoventryJeff) December 15, 2015

This train is going so slowly the person next to me has turned to peat. #SouthCroydon

— Adrian Mackinder (@AdrianMackinder) December 15, 2015

#southcroydon problem is the papier mache signalling equipment we got off that bloke in the pub. Didn't really consider a rainy day.

— BadSouthernRail (@BadSouthernRail) December 15, 2015

You know what I like best about trains. Delays. In the rain. 😳 #SouthCroydon

— Rachel Wood (@RachEWood) December 15, 2015

@SouthernRailUK these delays in purley are ridiculous. What's the problem?

— J Mc (@corkmaninlondon) December 15, 2015