Passengers flee after being 'trapped' in 'freezing' Elizabeth Line carriages

07 December 2023 , 21:19

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Passengers flee after being 'trapped' in 'freezing' Elizabeth Line carriages

James Blunt and Rachel Riley were among hundreds of passengers who were "trapped for hours" on cold, dark Elizabeth Line trains that became stuck following a power failure last night.

On Thursday night, hundreds of Londoners had to walk along the train tracks to reach safety. Journeys to and from London Paddington faced "major disruption" into the night after overhead electric cables were damaged, causing delays for thousands of commuters. Network Rail said it had to stop all services to and from Paddington while engineers fixed overhead power cables in the Ladbroke Grove area. Some passengers reported being stuck for hours while receiving no information from operators.

On X, formerly Twitter, singer James Blunt issued a plea for takeaway pizza - writing: "Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine." Countdown presenter Rachel Riley also revealed she had been stuck on the Elizabeth line for almost four hours. In one photo, a group of passengers can be seen walking along the tracks in near-freezing conditions, using their phones as torches.

Some passengers were stuck for hours in darkness with no information from operators. (X)

In one video shared on the platform, a woman with a baby can be heard talking about the "crazy" situation as other passengers tried to force the doors open. Another man said those who need to relieve themselves have to ask the driver to take them onto the track so they can go to the loo there "like hooligans". Engineers worked through the night to get two of the four lines serving Paddington open for electric trains. Friday morning commuters were warned their journeys may be delayed by up to 90 minutes.

Some passengers were stranded for four hours in the dark (Twitter)

Countdown presenter Rachel Riley was among the trapped passengers (RachelRiley)

Mikey Worrall told the PA news agency that being stuck on the train was "the most surreal evening" of his life. 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 they were evacuated.

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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."

After hours stuck, passengers reportedly began walking home (X)

Just before 10.30 pm, there were videos and images on social media showing people getting off the train and being led along the train tracks to safety. It's currently unknown how they were transported home but there were "rumours" of emergency buses being used. Speaking to Sky News, another stranded passenger said: "I've been sat for an hour outside Paddington and [it was] just announced another train has crashed into a power line. There'll be thousands of people heading for Heathrow missing flights."

A darkened train as passengers awaited more news (Twitter)

Mr Worrall continued: "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 didn’t work. It (goes down) multiple times a week, and it’s incredibly frustrating. The mayor of London needs to sort it out."

A Network Rail spokesman said: "We are so sorry for the difficult journeys passengers endured on our railway last night and we will be investigating how and why it happened. The knock-on effects from last night mean operators will not be able to run a full service from Paddington today and passengers should check before they travel. Repairs are ongoing and we hope to have the railway fully open by the weekend." The £19 billion Elizabeth Line – which opened in May 2022 – uses mainline rail infrastructure west of Paddington. Paddington services have been repeatedly affected by rail system faults in recent weeks. Incidents on the Great Western Line include four damaged rails discovered in eight days last month.

Ryan Fahey