Commuters faced travel misery above and below ground today, as signal failures and engineering work affected four Tube lines, weather conditions hit mainline train services and a second 24-hour strike halted dozens of bus routes in the capital.
On the mainline train network, high winds and rain resulted in leaves-on-the-line difficulties on many services into London from southern England.
Trains into the London stations of King's Cross, St Pancras, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross and Cannon Street were affected. Train speeds had to be cut and there were delays of up to 45 minutes.
A Network rail spokesman said: "We've had strong winds and rain, while compacted leaf mulch has led to a few adhesion problems."
London Underground's Central line, which runs through some of the network's busiest stations, including Oxford Circus, was completely shut down for much of the morning rush hour due to computer problems.
Severe delays continued on the Central line through most of the day, while travellers on the Victoria and Metropolitan lines endured delays due to faulty trains and a fire alert.
Overrunning weekend engineering work also suspended the Circle and District lines for a time, while passengers on the Northern line were subjected to severe delays due to a signal failure at South Wimbledon.
All of the affected London Underground lines except the Northern are maintained by the Metronet company under the private public partnership (PPP) scheme for the Underground.
Metronet, whose performance was criticised last week in a report by PPP arbiter Chris Bolt, today apologised to passengers and to London Underground (LU).
It said that on only a few occasions had weekend engineering work led to delays to services, while acknowledging that one delay was "one too many " and that disruptions like today's were "unacceptable".
The London Assembly's transport committee chairman, Geoff Pope, said: "With the triple whammy of a strike on the buses, late-running engineering work and signal failures, it has been a miserable Monday for thousands of Londoners simply trying to make their way to work."
London Mayor Ken Livingstone said Metronet had "entirely unnecessarily ruined thousands of Londoners' journeys".
The disruption continued on the roads, with a second walkout by around 2,500 staff at Metroline affecting services on around 50 bus routes in Holloway, King's Cross, Edgware, Wembley and Willesden as well as night bus services to north London from Trafalgar Square. The 24-hour stoppage is set to run until 4am tomorrow morning.
The drivers and engineers held a similar one-day strike last week because of a row over pay and plan to stage a third walkout on November 27 if no progress has been made in their dispute.
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