Passengers stuck for hours on Elizabeth Line after cables damagedon December 8, 2023 at 3:17 am

Passengers were left stuck on trains for hours without power after damage to overhead cables blocked routes to and from one of London’s busiest stations.

National Rail said it had to stop all services to and from Paddington while engineers fixed overhead power cables in the Ladbroke Grove area.

The Elizabeth Line, Great Western Railway and the Heathrow Express were all affected.

Network Rail urged people to check before travelling on Friday.

On social media, passengers spoke of being stuck on trains for hours without power.

Countdown’s Rachel Riley was one of those stuck on an Elizabeth Line train.

Posting a selfie on X of her and other passengers, all smiling, she said: “Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we’re getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!”.

Earlier, BBC journalist Emma Bentley shared photographs of fellow passengers waiting in the darkness, writing on X: “The carriages have now lost power, and it seems we may be walking home…”

She later added that passengers on her train were being evacuated – three and a half hours after becoming stranded.

Hugh Comerford, 65, said his train out of London was evacuated around three hours after it was forced to stop.

While speaking to the BBC, he said he could see workers outside the train window who were preparing to evacuate people, and that passengers had started disembarking and walking along the tracks.

He said: “At about 6.40pm the train just suddenly stopped and we didn’t really know why.

“The driver said that the train ahead of us got tangled in the overhead power cables so they had to turn the power off.”

Mr Comerford said not only did it start getting colder and there was no light, the driver was unable to make further announcements over the tannoy system.

He said his fellow passengers remained calm and were in quite good spirits “all things considered” – despite several “clearly missing flights”.

“We are fortunate there do not appear to be any young children,” he added.

Another passenger described how fellow passengers were being let off their train “one by one to urinate”.

Transport for London told BBC News that four Elizabeth Line trains were left stranded after “another rail operator’s train has caused significant disruption to our Elizabeth line customers”.

A spokesperson for Network Rail apologised for the “disruption and difficulties passengers endured this evening after a fault with overhead cables powering trains in the Ladbroke Grove area”.

“We had to stop all services while our engineers investigated the problem and our teams worked with British Transport Police and train operators to assist people on the trains affected.

“We are working to assess the damage and we advise anyone planning to travel to or from Paddington tonight or tomorrow morning to check National Rail Enquiries for the latest on the disruption,” they said.

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