Powerline collapse brings Euston rail traffic to a standstill

London: Britain's busiest railway was in meltdown yesterday with trains in and out of Euston brought to a virtual standstill.

More than 100,000 commuters were urged not to use the West Coast mainline to and from London after powerlines collapsed, bringing major disruption for the sixth day in a row.

Network Rail was slammed by passengers and train operators. It was accused of reopening the line "too soon" following a £9 billion (Dh50.02b) rebuilding programme.

Incandescent with rage

Virgin Trains boss Sir Richard Branson was said to be "incandescent with rage" following the repeated fiascos. Hundreds of passengers spent two hours stuck on freezing trains on Tuesday night after power lines north of Wembley collapsed when an express passed under them. Staff handed out survival blankets to shivering customers.

The collapse brought services to Euston to a halt. All Virgin and London Midland services were cancelled and only London overground services to Watford were operating leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

The failure astonished rail industry insiders as it was the third time the line has been brought to its knees in less than a week. On Friday a light plane crash beside the railway in Staffordshire brought down overhead power lines, resulting in disruption all weekend. On Sunday evening, just as services were supposed to be recovering, more power lines came down close to Watford Junction, causing disruption for Monday morning commuters which lasted all day.

Network Rail promised a full-scale inquiry.