Large parts of England and Wales were left without power on Friday night after a major network failure, causing widespread disruption to trains and roads ahead of a busy weekend for holiday travel.
National Grid said two power generators had experienced issues that had caused “loss of power in selected UK areas”.
A spokesman said “the issue is now resolved and the system has returned to normal”.
However, the power outages reported across the South-east, Midlands, South-west, North-east and Wales left hundreds of people trapped on trains. They disrupted traffic lights in areas of London and the south-east of England as well as essential services such as hospitals.
The outage hit train services into and out of London. Thameslink said trains between Farringdon and Bedford had been disrupted and “are currently at a stand”. Others were facing delays and cancellations.
UK Power Networks said on Friday evening on Twitter: “We’re aware of a power cut affecting large parts of London and South-east. We believe this is due to a failure on National Grid’s network, which is affecting our customers.”
Western Power Distribution (WPD), the electricity distribution network operator for the Midlands, South-west and Wales, said it was “currently experiencing a major incident on the national electricity infrastructure”.
Transport for London said traffic lights across parts of London and the South-east had been hit by the large-scale power cut. “Please be very cautious on the roads!” TfL said on Twitter.
TfL also said that London Underground’s Victoria line was suspended for about two hours. Power has been restored it said, but severe delays are expected. Pictures on social media showed passengers in stranded carriages in the dark.
People were urged to check their journey details before travelling. Metropolitan Police declined to comment.
London North Eastern Railway said it was unable to bring any trains into King’s Cross station, a transportation hub. Gatwick and Heathrow were operating as normal, a spokesman said.
Reporting by Anjli Raval, Donato Mancini, Daniel Thomas, Janina Conboye, Nathalie Thomas and David Sheppard
