Jubilee line warning after power failure

Hundreds of thousands of Jubilee line commuters were warned of major disruption getting home this evening following an earlier power failure.

More than 600 passngers, including tourists with youngsters, had to be led along the tracks in darkened tunnels to safety from two stranded trains near Bond Street.

The line was suspended first between West Hampstead and Waterloo then later this afternoon between Finchley Road and Waterloo.

At the same time the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines were all part suspended because of a person under a train at Mile End.

The Jubilee line had failed earlier, with
services suspended between Stanmore and Wembley Park due to a signal failure.

Then, shortly after 11am there was a major power failure in the Bond Street area. Two southbound trains with about 300 people on each became stranded between Baker Street and Bond Street.

After 40 minutes when engineers realised they could not get the power back on again it was decided to walk passengers including tourists with young children along the tracks to Bond Street, which took 45 minutes.

Other trains were stranded for a shorter time but London Underground managed to get these to stations. The line was suspended in both directions through central London.

There were severe delays on the rest of the line with shuttle services at either end. Engineers were seeking the cause of the power failure before the evening rush.

An LU spokesman said: "We apologies profusely to passengers for the disruption today."

As a result of the Mile End incident the District line was suspended between Tower Hill and West Ham and the Hammersmith & City line between Liverpool Street and Barking. There was also serious disruption on the Circle line.

The chaos came a day after the London Assembly's transport committee condemned the "unacceptable level of performance" across the network.