Passengers plunged into chaos as London Underground network suffers power outage

12 May 2025, 14:56 | Updated: 12 May 2025, 20:39

Travel chaos was seen across London as four Underground lines and the Elizabeth line were suspended ahead of the Monday afternoon rush hour after a fire caused a power outage on the network.

The entire Bakerloo and Waterloo and City lines were suspended, while the Northern, Jubilee and Elizabeth line services were all suffering from severe delays.

All of the disruption was caused by a 'contained fire' at an electrical substation in the Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place area in Maida Vale, which fire crews had to put out.

Three metres of high-voltage cabling was said to be destroyed and hundreds of businesses south of Oxford Street were affected.

Groups of bewildered passengers were seen standing outside at least 26 stations - including Tottenham Court Road, Covent Garden and Paddington - as Transport for London (TfL) staff cleared the platforms while the issue was dealt with.

Charring Cross, Embankment, Putney Bridge and South Kensington were also completely closed.

Claire Mann, TfL's Chief Operating Officer, said: "Due to a brief interruption of the power supply to our network, several lines lost power for a short period earlier this afternoon. 

"We apologise to customers whose journeys will have been affected. We are working to get the whole network up and running again as quickly as possible."

The "brief" power failure was believed to have taken place in south-west London at around 2.30pm.

TfL told LBC that the issue had been rectified and power restored to the network, but delays and line suspensions were still ongoing.

On the Elizabeth Line, there were no trains running between Paddington and Abbey Wood until 8pm.

National Rail said services across this line may be cancelled, delayed by up to 50 minutes or revised until 5.30pm.

The Jubilee line has resumed service but remains suspended between London Bridge and Finchley Road.

Meanwhile, there was no service between Euston and Kennington on the Northern line, or between Stockwell and Morden.

On the London Overground, the Suffragette line was completely suspended as TFL responded to a fire alert.

The Weaver line was also fully suspended due to a power failure, while the Mildmay line was part suspended between Highbury & Islington and Stratford.

Commuters have taken to social media to complain about the disruption, with one user writing on X: "How many times will I get to an Elizabeth line station just to hear the service has been suspended as soon as I walk in."

Another X user said that they were "stranded" after Tottenham Court Road was shut.

"Tottenham court road fully shut down and i cannot get anywhere in stranded here," they posted.

'Deeply troubling'

Responding to the trouble, TSSA General Secretary, Maryam Eslamdoust said - "The loss of power on such a scale is deeply troubling and hugely inconvenient for many people across London’s Tube and other networks.

“Safety for all is key at this moment, but in due course we will need a proper inquiry into what happened and the lessons to be learned.”