Power meltdown on railways again

Travellers walk on tracks after trains stranded by another cable collapse

Railway meltdown after high-tech train wrecks 1,600ft cable

RAIL passengers endured yet another day of chaos as overhead power cables collapsed for the second time in less than a fortnight.

Some travellers even disembarked and walked along the tracks rather than wait to be evacuated from stranded trains.

Services between London Paddington, Heathrow, Oxford and Maidenhead were severely disrupted due to damage to cables between Paddington, Hayes and Harlington just before midday yesterday.

Furious passengers complained of being stranded on stationary trains, and ‘herded like cattle’ on to alternative packed services. Others complained of missing flights as Heathrow Express trains were among those cancelled.

Services on Great Western Railway were also temporarily suspended from Paddington, with trains beginning and terminating at Reading.

British Transport Police warned passengers trapped on board stranded trains to wait to be evacuated safely.

BTP Paddington tweeted: ‘Please do not leave trapped trains, remain on board. Rail tracks are very dangerous.’

It is thought around ten trains were left stranded, two of them run by GWR.

One diesel train with around 600 passengers on board managed to continue its journey eventually because it did not rely on electricity. But 400 pasto

From the Mail, October 18 sengers on another service had to be evacuated and moved on to another train and taken to Reading.

Travellers on the Heathrow Express were taken on a rescue service back to Paddington and transferred to buses to travel to the airport.

One holidaymaker tweeted: ‘My husband and I are going miss our flight back to Atlanta which means I need a new flight and accommodation.’

Another wrote on Twitter: ‘Total Network Rail disaster, trains to Paddington out again, off-loaded at Reading and now herded like cattle into an all- stops train to Waterloo, barely standing room (not breathing) only – total nightmare, no support or respect for passengers.’

The latest shambles comes lless than two weeks after a new train wrecked 1,600ft of overhead cables on a test run near Paddington.

Passengers across much of Southern England were caught up in the mayhem, which was caused by a £16million ‘bullet’ train snagging a power cable in the West London suburb of Ealing.

Yesterday Network Rail, which is responsible for Britain’s rail infrastructure, stressed the problem started around midday and had been ‘fixed’ by 4pm.

It said the collapsed cable was not caused by a test train and that its team is investigating what happened.

Meanwhile rail passengers on other routes had to contend with a sixth successive day of disruption as a points problem hit services.

South Western Railway said trains between London Waterloo and Weybridge in Surrey might be delayed or terminated at Surbiton.

The company’s services were also disrupted because of a five-day strike from Tuesday in the long-running dispute over guards on trains.

A series of 24-hour walkouts will be held on Saturdays in November.

Commenting on the problems at Paddington, a Network Rail spokesman said: ‘We thank passengers for their patience whilst we worked to reopen the lines.’

British Transport Police said in a statement: ‘A number of trains were stranded due to overhead power issues, resulting in a number of passengers removing themselves from trains and walking on tracks.

‘Officers attended to support the rail industry and to assist with the safe evacuation of a number of trains which were stranded in the area.’