Fire causes London train chaos

Hundreds of thousands of London commuters faced delays this morning as three mainline train stations were closed due to a fire. Fire officers were called to a blaze near South Bermondsey train station on Debnams Road, south-east London, at 3am. The fire continued to burn throughout the morning and fire crews were still on the scene. A spokeswoman for the London fire brigade said 10 fire engines attended the blaze, which had affected a 10m high disused railway arch. The fire broke out underneath Southeastern trains' main route into London Bridge station. A statement on the company's website said trains were not stopping at London Bridge, Charing Cross or Cannon Street. "St Pancras, Victoria and Blackfriars stations remain open," it said. Some services were being diverted to Victoria. A spokesman for Network Rail said First Capital Connect trains running south from Brighton to Bedford were not stopping at London Bridge. Southern services were operating a reduced service into the station. "It's an incredibly busy part of the network," he said. "So it's somewhat unfortunate that this incident has happened on that part of the line. It's safe to say that the fire has impacted on hundreds of thousands of people this morning." The London fire brigade spokeswoman said officers' attempts to extinguish the blaze had been complicated by the presence of gas cylinders at the site. Fifteen people were evacuated from a nearby apartment block. Southeastern trains said London buses, the underground and DLR were "accepting Southeastern tickets on all reasonable routes" but a spokeswoman for Transport for London said only London buses would accept Southeastern tickets. Where possible services were being diverted via Orpington to Victoria and mainline tickets were being accepted on high-speed services to St Pancras at no additional cost, Southeastern said.