Thousands stranded on cold, dark London trains for hours after power cut | UK News

Thousands of passengers were left trapped inside packed trains for hours on end in London after a huge power outage.

Celebrities were among the stranded commuters as the rail network descended into complete chaos in the capital on Thursday evening.

Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours.

Trains stopped running between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport in the rush hour after damage to overhead cables, shutting down the Elizabeth Line and causing major disruption to National Rail and Heathrow Express services.

Singer James Blunt and TV star Rachel Riley were caught up in the carnage as many also reported being unable to go to toilet.

‘Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now,’ Blunt said on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Out of peanuts and wine.’

Meanwhile Riley wrote: ‘Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we’re getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!’

One passenger said: ‘That’s crazy. We have been in Elizabeth line for more than two hours. Power off. All dark. I got a newborn with me. A lady fainted.

‘We’re on the way to airport to go back home for Christmas. Missing a flight first time in my lifetime.’

Commuter Mikey Worrall said the debacle was the ‘most surreal evening of his life’ and compared the evacuation to something that ‘felt like a wartime thing’.

He described the train as lurching to a stop and then a long, multiple-hour wait in semi-darkness as the driver drip-fed what little information they had through to passengers.

Eventually, the battery backup running the train’s heating and light services ran out, and passengers were left in darkness for another hour and a half until the evacuation came.

Mr Worrall said: ‘We saw a couple of workers come past, and they were trying to keep everyone calm.

‘Suddenly, we saw a stream of people coming down the track, and at that point, it was clear that we would be getting off.

‘It was really eerie walking down the railway line in amongst this big crowd of people. It felt like a wartime thing.’

As to why the line broke down, Mr Worrall said: ‘Every day, it’s a different excuse. It seems to me they opened this whole thing without actually being fit for purpose.

‘If they knew there were infrastructure issues that they needed to work on, why didn’t they work on those before? They opened the line and it doesn’t work.

‘It (goes down) multiple times a week, and it’s incredibly frustrating.’

He added: ‘The mayor of London needs to sort it out.’

Comedian Paul Chowdhry also said on X: ‘My friend has been stuck on the Elizabeth Line for almost 3 hours.

‘People are using train tracks as toilets, with some even using their seats. And he just became a British citizen after immigrating from Bangladesh. Welcome to England, mate.’

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