London's power cut

Do not (I repeat) do not, ask any Londoner about their journey home this evening.

I was one of the lucky ones and actually got home in about an hour and forty minutes which was only fifty minutes longer than normal and that's because I'd heard about the power cut before I left work, so left work at about 7.40pm and got home at about 9pm. The tubes were a complete non starter for me, so I threw myself on a bus before I had any idea of the real extent of the power cut, then got off somewhere in South East London and walked three quarters of a mile to Waterloo station where luckily I got a train and more importantly a seat and after sitting for twenty minutes the train slowly left and I got to Kew Bridge, started to walk home. Then thought f**k this for a game of soldiers and hailed a cab to do the last part home.

For the full story check out SKY news, at the time of writing this blog very few of the UK news websites seemed to have anything to report:

"Thousands were trapped in underground trains and tunnels for up to an hour when power failed at around 6.30pm.

"Hundreds of traffic lights and street lights failed and by the time the National Grid fault was corrected at 7pm, many had given up hope and were spending the evening in pubs and bars."

Masochists can check out SKY's picuture gallery.



The BBC also reported that:

"South London was hardest hit and Transport for London said 60% of the Tube network was affected.

"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. .......

"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."

Obviously everyone's talking about the similarities between this and the power cut in New York which only happened a couple of weeks ago. Typically as well after the heatwave we had in London, guess which night it chose to rain for the first time in ages!!!

No doubt we will hear the full extent tomorrow along with stories of woe about how long it took people to get home.

Only a few London bloggers have had the strength to report it so for, but check out the ever trusty Meg at meish.org, and Aderemi perhaps everyone else is still getting home!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, August 29, 2003 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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