Stranded commuters walk on live tracks

More than 150 commuters clambered off a rush-hour train onto live tracks after it lost power as it pulled out of a station.

The South West Trains service stopped 10 feet beyond the end of platform four at Waterloo.

There were 300 passengers on board and within minutes, half had lost patience and decided to get out of the slamdoor train and walk along tracks to the station.

When station managers realised what was happening, they had to cut the power to all tracks serving platforms one to five. Before it was restored an hour later, 12 trains had been cancelled and more than 50 delayed, leaving thousands of commuters stranded.

The initial loss of power took place on the 17.33 service from Waterloo to Shepperton yesterday. Delays of up to 40 minutes continued on all services for the rest of the evening.

A spokeswoman for South West trains apologised for the delays and said an inquiry had begun into the loss of power.

But she added: "The problem would have been sorted out a lot faster if passengers had not deboarded the train. We think there were about 300 on it and at least 150 of them walked out onto the rails.

"That was extremely dangerous and we had to cut the power to five platforms, which caused delays all evening."