250,000 stranded as power blackout paralyses London
By Danielle Demetriou
29 August 2003
London was brought to a standstill by power cuts that halted its Tube and rail services in the rush hour last night.
In scenes reminiscent of the North American blackouts earlier this month, more than 250,000 people were affected by the National Grid supply failure, which lasted only 34 minutes but caused disruption late into the night.
Crowds of confused passengers were cleared from mainline and Underground stations in central London. Stranded commuters poured out of stations into a darkened city where the street lighting had failed. Heavy rain added to the problems. Enormous queues formed at taxi ranks and there was fierce jostling as people struggled for places on the available buses.
Launching an investigation into the cause of the blackout, National Grid attributed the problem to an "unusual" power failure on a high-voltage circuit supplying Wimbledon, Hurst and New Cross.
National Grid's American business, Niagara Mohawk, was among those hit hardest when one of the largest power failures in North American history plunged a string of states into chaos earlier this month.
Last night, Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, called for an inquiry into the power failure, which he branded as a "disgrace". "We have never faced a crisis like this before," he told Channel 4 News. "There's no indication of any terrorist involvement but it is an absolutely horrendous position because it has caught the rush hour. We have got to look urgently and seriously at the National Grid. The grid should never go down for that length of time."
The problems began at around 6.20pm, when a blackout descended upon a vast swath of the capital and Kent. Although power slowly began to return within 34 minutes, the disruption for thousands of commuters continued due to a hefty backlog of stalled trains.
At the height of the power cut, more than 60 per cent of the Underground was closed, and as many as 250,000 passengers were evaculated from the network. Thousands more faced disruption with the cancellation of between 500 and 1,000 Network Rail trains.
Many of the main railway stations were emptied, from Victoria to Charing Cross and London Bridge to Euston, due to both overcrowding and the halting of services.
London Fire Brigade was summoned to rescue more than 100 people trapped in lifts in buildings across the city as the lights went out. Hospitals in central London were forced to rely on emergency generators while streets remained gridlocked because more than 250 traffic lights had failed. Thousands of Tube passengers were thought to have been stranded on trains in tunnels when the power went off.
One of the stranded commuters was Alan Basford, 52, a civil servant who was struggling to find a way to his home in Meopham, near Gravesend in Kent. "This disruption seems very similar to what happened in New York," he said. "If I can't get back home tonight I'll have to go back to the office or get a North Kent coach from Victoria coach station but I imagine the traffic will be horrendous I've just got to see what happens."
For Valerie Chalancon, 33, a teacher from Rochester, Kent, the biggest surprise was the extent to which London appeared ill-equipped to deal with such an incident. "It's quite amazing that a big city like London can be brought to a standstill like this," she said. "The infrastructure is terrible it's really quite worrying.
"But there always seems to be a problem with the trains. It's a real struggle to travel sometimes, I don't know what's going to happen to the system in the future."
Jenny White, a 20-year-old secretary from Longfield, Kent, added: "I just really want to get home, I've been here for ages now. The queue for the cabs is about a mile long and there's nowhere I can get a bus there's so many people out there."
Last night, transport experts highlighted the fact that blackout took place less than a year after the Underground's power supplies were connected to the National Grid for the first time as part of a controversial private finance deal.
Power supplies were transferred from the independent power station Lots Road, in Chelsea, south-west London, which had provided electricity to the network for 97 years until ceasing operation last October. Christian Wolmar, author of the book Down the Tubes, told today's Guardian: "For nearly 100 years, LU had a guaranteed electricity supply because it had its own power station, Within a year of its dependence on the grid and the PFI, suddenly we get a serious breakdown."
National Grid supplies high-voltage, bulk electricity from its system to distributors, which then transfer the power through regional networks to businesses and homes at lower voltages. A spokesman said: "The fault in our system has caused a knock-on effect to the regional distribution network.
TRAINS
Victoria, London Bridge and Waterloo were severely affected with all lines from the stations out of action. A stretch of rail 20 to 30 miles south of London was disrupted by signals locked on red. Euston station was evacuated due to overcrowding, with passengers trying to get on to the Tube. Power to all signal systems to the third rail, which supplies power to the trains, points and lighting, went out between 6.26pm and 7pm.
TUBE
Sixty per cent of the network was affected by the power cut, forcing the evacuation of an estimated 250,000 passengers from stations and trains across the capital. As in North America, many trains in tunnels were evacuated - with staff heading down to the trains to take passengers down the tunnels, along the track and on to the platform. Alternative power feeds were sought from north London. Connex, responsible for trains to Kent and south-east London, said its customers could expect waits of up to four hours once power had been restored.
ROADS
At least 270 sets of traffic lights were hit across south London and the South-east and remained out of action for more than half an hour. "It has had a major effect," an AA spokeswoman said.
"But unfortunately it's also affected our cameras so we have no idea what's happening on the roads and are relying on the police for information."
HOMES
The London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, said that between 100,000 and 150,000 people around the capital had been affected by the power cut. A further 100 people were stuck in lifts and rescued by firefighters.
EMERGENCY SERVICES
The power at Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals, both in south-east London, went off momentarily - although a back-up generator started before any damage was caused. A fire, believed to be connected to the power cut, broke out behind the main building of Guy's, forcing the brief closure of the minor injuries unit. All NHS hospitals had back-up generators, the Department of Health said.
TODAY'S SERVICES
To the relief of hundreds of thousands of commuters, bus and Underground services across London will resume as normal this morning, according to Transport for London. Network Rail said that train services are also expected to be operating as planned this morning. Only a "tiny minority" of the 1,500 services scheduled to operate may encounter delays, according to a Network Rail spokesman.
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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,11032,1031530,00.html
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