Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Passengers stuck for hours on Elizabeth line after cable damage
SERVICES to and from one of the UK’s busiest railway stations were disrupted yesterday after hundreds of passengers were stranded on dark, cold trains for several hours.
Damage to overhead electric cables in the Ladbroke Grove area of west London at around 6.30pm on Thursday severely affected Elizabeth line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express trains to and from Paddington.
The London station is the main hub in the capital for services to and from the West Country.
Some passengers reported being stuck for more than three hours while receiving no information from operators.
Engineers worked through the night to get two of the four lines serving Paddington open for electric trains.
But yesterday morning commuters were warned their journeys may be delayed by up to 90 minutes.
Mikey Worrall, who was one of those stranded on an Elizabeth line train on Thursday night, said it was “the most surreal evening” of his life.
He described the train as lurching to a stop and then a long, multiplehour wait in semi-darkness as the driver drip-fed what little information they had through to passengers.
Eventually, the battery back-up 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.
Mr Worrall said: “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.”
Singer James Blunt and TV presenter Rachel Riley were also affected by the disruption. Blunt posted on X: “Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine”, while Riley wrote: “Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we’re getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!”
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.