Chaos for Tube passengers after track blaze
TENS of thousands of rush-hour commuters were hit by chaos on the Underground this morning caused by a trackside fire in East London and a signal failure in the City at the same time. It brought the District, Hammersmith & City lines to a standstill and knocked out the Circle in one direction
TENS of thousands of rush-hour commuters were hit by chaos on the Underground this morning caused by a trackside fire in East London and a signal failure in the City at the same time.
It brought the District, Hammersmith & City lines to a standstill and knocked out the Circle Line in one direction.
The misery began at dawn when the signal went down at Blackfriars at 5.30am which resulted in trains running anti-clockwise on the Circle, running eastward towards Aldgate and Liverpool Street, brought to a standstill.
Circle Line trans running the other way, through Aldgate to Victoria and round back through King’s Cross, were unaffected.
CABLE FIRE
A fire then broke out 40 minutes later which damaged a power cable at the side of the tracks at East Ham.
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That led to the District being suspended between Whitechapel and Upminster from 6.15am and the Hammersmith & City from Whitechapel to Barking.
Passengers on one train were stranded for 50 minutes when power to the track had to be turned off while fire-crews tackled the blaze.
There was further disruption on the Central Line when a passenger pulled the emergency alarm on an eastbound train at Mile End at 8.40am, during an argument with another commuter.
