• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Blackout Stops London Trains for 40 Mins.

Posted on: Thursday, 28 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Power went out in parts of the capital and southeast England on Thursday, causing serious disruptions on the London Underground and some train lines.

EDF Energy, which handles some power transmission for London, said electricity had gone out around 6:20 p.m. and come back on at 7 p.m. The outages appeared to be confined to south London and Kent, a county southeast of the city.

A spokesman for the Underground said 60 percent of the subway system had been brought to a halt at the height of the evening rush hour, including the majority of services in central London.

Workers were evacuating affected trains and stations. News reports said many passengers were stuck underground, but no accidents or injuries were immediately reported on the train or subway lines.

The Tube can get uncomfortably warm during summer, but temperatures outside were only about 18 degrees Celsius (65 degrees Fahrenheit).

EDF spokesman Gareth Wynn said the problem originated in two high-voltage lines belonging to the national power grid that help supply the Wimbledon area of southeast London.

He said it was very unlikely the problem had been caused by any kind of sabotage.

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said the outage had affected all of south London's major overland train stations - Victoria, London Bridge, Waterloo - and temporarily halted all the area's main train lines.

"Some stations are in darkness and others have emergency lighting," he said on condition of anonymity before power returned.

The transport police later said power was being restored on some train lines. "Things are now starting to move slowly," the spokesman said.

The police were contacting London Underground to make sure there were no people on the tracks before reactivating the lines.

Kevin Groves, a spokesman for Network Rail, which operates Britain's rail infrastructure, said power had been cut along tracks stretching 20 to 30 miles (32 kms to 48 kms) south of London.

London's Metropolitan Police said 270 sets of traffic lights had gone out in and near south London, but that all had come back on.

More News in this Category