A major power failure sparked travel chaos across London on Monday afternoon, grinding parts of the Tube to a halt and leaving thousands of commuters stranded.
The disruption began around 14:30 when a fault on the National Grid’s transmission system caused a sharp voltage dip. That sudden drop triggered a fire at an electrical substation in Maida Vale, where three metres of high-voltage cabling were destroyed.
This quickly caused widespread outages that paralysed several Tube and Overground lines.
The Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines were fully suspended. Severe delays hit the Jubilee, Northern and Elizabeth lines, while central stations like Oxford Circus and Waterloo were closed entirely.
It was a full-scale meltdown during the evening rush hour, forcing passengers to scramble for alternative routes or wait in packed, overheated platforms.
Though the grid fault itself was resolved within seconds, the dip wreaked havoc on lower-voltage networks, causing knock-on failures across the capital.
Emergency services tackled the blaze at the substation while engineers worked through the night to bring the system back online.
By this morning, most services had resumed – but delays continued on some lines including the District and Metropolitan as teams dealt with residual knock-on effects.
This is the second major substation failure in recent months. In March, a similar incident at another site triggered a blackout that affected Heathrow Airport, raising fresh questions about the resilience of Britain’s ageing energy infrastructure.
Passengers were also left fuming over poor communication. The TfL website crashed, social media updates were sporadic and many Londoners were left in the dark—literally and figuratively.
Calls are now growing for a full investigation into the fire and its root cause.
Officials are also under pressure to boost resilience across the grid and ensure key sites like substations are better protected.
Monday’s events have once again highlighted just how fragile the city’s power and transport systems can be when pushed to the limit.
