OREANDA-NEWS. Routes currently affected include lines into London Waterloo via Surbiton, various South West suburban routes including Shepperton to Fulwell and Virginia Water to Weybridge,  lines into London Victoria from East Croydon, and a variety of different metro routes in South East London, including those running via Bexleyheath and Blackheath.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “It’s a very fast moving picture this morning, with flash floods still arising and others falling in a variety of different routes into London.

“In addition, we are dealing with the aftermath of lightning strikes at Surbiton, which is on the main line into Waterloo, and at Blackheath.

“Our advice to passengers in the South East this morning is to please check before you travel, either with your operator's website or on National Rail Enquiries.

“Our staff have been out all night and are still out in the rain working with pumps and repairing damage, and we are doing all that we can to keep trains running.”

The most notable incidents this morning include:

Lightning strike at Surbiton on routes into Waterloo

Wandsworth Common flooding, affecting routes into Victoria

Flooding at Bexleyheath

Lightning strike at Blackheath

Flooding at Catford

Flooding on the Redhill - Tonbridge line

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain's railway - the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.65bn journeys by rail every year and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We employ 36,000 people across Britain and work round-the-clock, each and every day, to provide a safe, reliable railway.