Commuters delayed after rail fire

Tens of thousands of commuters faced long delays on the way into London on Friday after a blaze at one of Britain's busiest railway stations.

A line cable at Clapham Junction station caught fire causing major disruption on South West Trains (SWT) services into Waterloo station.

Some trains were cancelled and some services delayed for nearly two hours.

Lines have now re-opened and SWT said there is a "near normal" service now operating.

"Initially nine out of the 17 lines going through Clapham Junction were closed and a revised timetable went into operation," said a Network Rail spokesperson.

"Within about 30 minutes all but two of the lines had been reopened. The remaining two were reopened at 1215."

An investigation is underway to establish how the fire started.

The incident is not being treated as suspicious.

Meanwhile at nearby Norwood Junction, a track defect caused more problems for commuters using South Eastern, Southern and Thameslink trains.

And there were signal problems at Tulse Hill, also in south London, affecting Southern and Thameslink trains.