Mass confusion swept through Victoria Station this evening after a power failure wiped boards of travel information and caused widespread cancellations.
The electric failure also caused major delays which will run until the end of the service on Tuesday evening, as passengers reported people ‘fainting’ on ‘overcrowded’ services.
Baffled commuters were left rushing for a place on the trains after the station’s electricity appeared to short-circuit, cancelling earlier services.
Southern Railway, Southeastern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express were all reporting cancellations and delays of up to 45 minutes on Tuesday.
Passenger Polly Perkins said people had passed out.
She said on Twitter: ‘Sitting in between Victoria & Brixton for past 30 min on an hour late train. ‘People fainting because of overcrowding.
‘What is going on?’
Meanwhile, Passengers described the situation as ‘chaos’.
Stephen George tweeted: ‘When Victoria Station stops functioning, Network Rail and South Eastern Railway need to be completely torn up and reimagined. Chaos. When will you admit that transport in the south east is awful? Not to mention that Thameslink still doesn’t go to Maidstone.’
Sam Burnett said: ‘Victoria Station this evening is like that dream where 3,000 of the people who hate you the most in the world are trying to stop you getting on a train.’
Tracks between Croydon and Victoria caused cancellations and delays, Southern Railway said.
Despite lines being open normal service will not resume until tomorrow, it is believed.
South Eastern Rail said in a statement: ‘Network Rail are working as quickly to resolve the power supply issue at and signalling problem at London Victoria and signalling problem at Chislehurst which is affecting many Southeastern routes this evening. We are very sorry for the delay to your journey this evening.’
About 210,000 passengers use the station every day.
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