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Snotty
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quote:
A power cut is causing major disruption through London and the South East.
Train company Connex has reported the power is out between London and Ashford, affecting services through London Bridge, Victoria, Ashford, New Cross and Bromley.
The London Underground network is thought to be seriously disrupted, and commuters have reported the Central Line has stopped but LU says a limited service is still running.
Buses are reportedly extremely busy as commuters abandon packed Tube platforms.
South London is thought to be worst affected but there have been reports of power returning in Clapham, south-west London.
Businesses and homes have been plunged into darkness and traffic lights have gone out in Brixton, Battersea and London Bridge.
Sue Gill from EDF Energy said: "It seems that one of the National Grid circuits that feeds south London has failed.
"The National Grid are currently looking into it."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the power cut would not cause major problems for hospitals in the area.
He said: "All NHS hospitals have back up generators. They will be able to cope."
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Of course its all going to have been down to the grid. But would the government ever say otherwise?
I remember someone saying in one of the america blackout threads that if it was terrorists they would take out lots of grids at the same time. Well how about one, and then another a few weeks later? If theres another powercut in a major city sometime in the next few weeks, it will certainly make me think.
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Snotty
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I think this evenings rain will be the excuse given. Our clay soil drying in the heat wave and now expanding again would be my guess.
I cant say for certain about the strength of our grids, but the habit of people complaining about our rail network has surely greatly exaggerated the real problems. A little more patience needed maybe?
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C0ckney
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Big Up The Macedonian Massive
Apr 2000
time: 05:30
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yeah the west london grid was a target for the IRA some years ago IIRC.
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Snotty
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The latest.
quote:
Power cut causes chaos
Some Tube stations were evacuated
A rush-hour power cut has caused major disruption on rail and Tube services in London and the South East.
Power returned to the system at about 1900 BST and the rail and tube network took several hours before most services resumed normal operations.
Network Rail said about 1,800 trains were affected by the power cut, caused by a fault with the National Grid.
Train company Connex reported the power went out between London and Ashford, in Kent.
South London was hardest hit and Transport for London said 60% of the Tube network was affected.
Extremely busy
Stations and trains were evacuated as commuters using the Tube were plunged into darkness and some were stuck underground as the power went off at about 1820 BST.
Buses quickly became extremely busy and lines of people waiting for taxis grew as commuters abandoned packed Tube platforms.
London Fire Brigade took 400 calls and say they rescued about 100 people who were stuck in lifts.
Commuter misery at power cuts
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said at least 250,000 people were affected and said the situation showed the need for a serious look at the National Grid and why power went down for so long.
"We've never had this catastrophic failure before and we clearly can't have it again," he said.
British Transport Police say Tube services have been restored.
Commuter Jane Marriott, 27, was trying to get to Paddington from Canada Water on the Tube, but ended up taking the bus and walking part of the way.
She said: "It's absolute chaos, it's very wet which is making people very miserable.
Queues grew for buses and taxis
"A bit of the Blitz spirit is kicking in and people are talking to each other which is nice, but we need more cabs and more bus lanes."
Businesses and homes in Brixton, Battersea and London Bridge were plunged into darkness and police said 270 sets of traffic lights went out.
St Thomas's Hospital, in south-east London was among those which had to rely on back-up power generators.
Network Rail spokesman Kevin Groves said the situation was "unprecedented" as far as he knew.
'Very similar to New York'
The National Grid is investigating the cause of the fault but spokesman Sean Regan said any loss of power supply was "an unusual occurrence".
He added: "There was a fault in the 275,000 volt system affecting a ring around London, which occurred at 1826 BST.
"Power to the distribution network in London was restored at 1900 BST.
"Obviously it is going to take the regional distribution network some time to restore supplies to the end users of their system. Hopefully it shouldn't be long now."
Civil servant Alan Basford, 52, from Meopham, Kent, added: "This disruption seems very similar to what happened in New York, and it's also a bit strange the two events have happened close together."
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quote:
Originally posted by mrmitchell
Don't jump to conclusions and immediately expect a massive terrorist attack or something, snotty. The 99.9% chance is still that it's just a coincidence that 2 major areas went out within weeks. |
I totally agree that its most likely a coincidence. We should just keep our eyes open to see if a pattern starts to develop.
Mobius, the report says the cut happened at 1826, but here in north surrey the rain really started coming down at 1500. I know it so precisely because I work outside. You must have been lucky to miss it.
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CerberusIV
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As I understand it the deregulation here isn't quite like it is in the USA. In the UK one company remains responsible for all the high voltage distribution lines and they are funded by a levy on everyone's electricity bill. The cost of keeping the grid up to a reasonable standard doesn't come directly out of the profits of the companies who actually bill the customers. The industry regulator is the one who actually decides how much money the national grid company gets to run the power transmission network.
Latest reports on the TV suggest two unrelated faults occurred in quick succession.
It's still better than the 3 hours on, 3 hours off supply in Baghdad!
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28-08-2003 23:41
Canada at it again, I see....
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