A short-lived power outage in central London on Monday afternoon led to significant disruptions on the London Underground, stranding commuters during the busy rush hour.
Transport for London (TfL) confirmed that the power failure caused at least three Tube lines to be fully suspended. Additionally, six other lines experienced severe delays or partial service suspensions, according to the TfL website.
The issue occurred due to a fault on the transmission network, which the National Grid said was “resolved within seconds.”
“Due to a brief interruption of the power supply to our network, several lines lost power for a short period earlier this afternoon,” said Claire Mann, TfL’s chief operating officer. “We are working to get the whole network up and running again as quickly as possible.”
TfL said it was collaborating with the National Grid to investigate the cause of the failure.
Earlier in the day, a TfL spokesperson told the PA news agency that a power outage in south London lasted “for a matter of minutes,” but it was enough to cause major disturbances across the subway system.
British media reported that several stations in central London were entirely closed as a result of the incident.
