A steam train caused rush hour delays at Britain's busiest railway station after arriving too early.

Human error by a signaller led to the Mayflower being allowed to arrive at London Waterloo ahead of schedule on Tuesday morning, an industry source said.

This caused several hours of disruption for passengers travelling to the station on South Western Railway (SWR) services.

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The steam train was at the station to collect leisure passengers embarking on a trip to Windsor after Slough businessman David Buck took over the Steam Dream Rail Company in December last year to fulfil a lifelong dream.

Slough Observer:

The Mayflower owner David Buck with Windsor and Maidenhead mayor Sayonara Luxton

The Mayflower was built in 1948 and is one of two surviving B1 Class locomotives.

A spokesman for Network Rail, the government-owned company responsible for managing Britain's rail infrastructure, said: "We apologise to passengers that were delayed this morning travelling into London Waterloo.

"This was caused by the arrival of a chartered steam train which limited capacity at the platforms."

SWR said in a statement that its services run to a "very tight schedule" and an early train "can cause knock-on delays that continue for hours".

London Waterloo operates at full capacity during peak hours and is used by more than a quarter of a million passengers every day.

A number of passengers sent Twitter messages to SWR to express their frustration at the disruption.

One wrote: "This marks the eighth consecutive travel day where your services have not got me to Waterloo on time as scheduled. Your service is an abomination."

Responding to an SWR Tweet stating that the problem was caused by a train arriving earlier than scheduled, another user posted: "First time for everything I suppose."

The Mayflower will run between Waterloo and Windsor every Tuesday throughout the summer until September 3 - offering three classes of travel in vintage carriages.