Clapham Junction station plunged into darkness by power failure

Britain's busiest station was thrown into chaos after a power cut left it in darkness.

Tens of thousands of passengers were forced to find alternative routes when Clapham Junction shut at 9.20 last night after its lighting and computer systems stopped working.

Travellers were unable to use the station until the early hours of today, when an emergency generator was used to restore power.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said: “It was a question of light. Trains could still pass through but were not stopping. Just as you can get a power failure in your own home, we got one at the station.”

The cause of the failure is being investigated.

Power went off at 4.20pm but passengers were able to travel as normal for several hours, despite being affected by electronic information screens not working.

But when the sun went down, it became “too dark” to allow passengers into the station and it was closed for safety reasons.

Southern, South West Trains and London Overground services were all affected. Today trains were running as normal at the station but problems with ticket vending machines, Oyster card readers and information screens were continuing. Staff were deployed with portable ticket machines to ease the congestion.

Commuters took to Twitter to vent their anger at the closure of the station, which is the busiest in Europe. It is used by 430,000 people a day and sees 180 trains pass through per hour at peak times.

Many questioned whether London’s transport infrastructure was ready for the Olympic crowds this summer.

SWTrains User said: “Clapham Junction, really showing how we are going to get ahead in the Games.”

Commuter Louise Sargent said: “Complete power failure at Clapham Junction. How do we honestly think we’ll cope during the Olympics? It’s embarrassing.”

A spokesman for UK Power Networks said it was called to the problem at the station but found the “fault was on a piece of internal equipment belonging to Network Rail”.