The misery of the "abysmal" Northern Line reached new heights yesterday when a signalling failure left thousands of commuters with massive delays, and then no service at all.

Workers heading up to town were left stranded at Morden station, either waiting optimistically by the screens in the hope news of a departing train would actually arrive, or desperately joining the queue for a 93 bus to Wimbledon, which stretched out of sight down the London Road.

The nightmare began at 7.17am, when a cable failure led to a signal malfunction at Clapham Common.

Occasional packed and sweaty trains managed to crawl along for several hours until the service was scrapped altogether between Morden and Stockwell at 11.45am, to allow emergency engineering works to be carried out.

As the News went to press Transport for London (TfL) was optimistic the line would reopen before the evening rush hour.

Heading north from Morden, 26-year-old Lucinda, from Wimbledon, said: "You can't rely on it to get to work, or to do anything actually."

Barry Taylor, 57, a carpenter from North Cheam was more critical. He said: "The tube is abysmal. I get to Portsmouth quicker by car than I get to the city by tube."

And pension administrator Ann Dennan, 44, from Sutton, added: "The tube is not satisfactory, especially in the hot weather."

Even the announcer at Colliers Wood seemed as exasperated as his passengers. He said: "For those lucky enough to have only joined the train here, we have a signal failure".

One commuter, 24-year-old graphic designer Annalisa Brooker, who managed to get on a train, said: "I was one of the lucky ones. But we were held in a tunnel for 20 long sweaty minutes. Again another horrendous journey and late for work."

Not everyone was completely negative however. Steve Allen, a 33-year-old policeman from Clapham, said: "It's frustrating at times but transport in London is generally good."

To make matters worse the fiasco was compounded by another signal failure, albeit more minor and temporary, at Warren Street, on the Victoria line. TfL apologised for the delays and stressed that trains and buses were accepting Tube tickets to try and alleviate the problems.

A spokeswoman for Tube Lines, the company responsible for Northern Line maintenance, said: "Tube Lines immediately dispatched a number of engineers to investigate the cause of the incident and arrange for the necessary replacement of the cable.

"New cable has already been delivered to the site and since about 11.45am today (Tuesday) a small section of the northbound track between Balham and Stockwell has been suspended for a team to go on to the track to replace the cable.

"Tube Lines aims to complete this work prior to the afternoon peak.

"The old cable will then be taken away for engineers to carry out thorough investigations to understand the cause of this cable failure."