London Euston delays: Signal failure sparks chaos as thousands head home after Labour conference in Liverpool
Thousands of people heading home from the Labour annual conference in Liverpool face disruption on the railways following a signalling outage in north London.
All lines were blocked between Euston and Watford Junction due to the fault at Wembley station on Wednesday afternoon.
Network Rail confirmed two lines had been reopened by 2.30pm, but delays and cancellations are likely to continue until at least 6pm
The outage has affected Virgin trains between Liverpool and London on the afternoon that Labour’s conference came to a close, potentially forcing huge crowds to find alternative routes home.
Lads just a quick heads up that you've got the whole shadow cabinet and half of Britain's journalists about to get on your network in an hour and they're all hungover and grumpy and wanting to nationalise things.
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) September 26, 2018
Hate to say this but if signal failure halted Virgin Trains between Liverpool and London it doesn't help Labour's nationalisation argument. Signals are operated by Network Rail which is "cough" the public bit
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) September 26, 2018
James Dean, chief operating officer for Network Rail’s London North Western Route, said: “At 12.30pm we lost signalling in the North Wembley area. We have located the problem - a broken cable. We are fixing it now.
“Two train lines have reopened. We estimate full power will be back on by 3pm with train services being recovered thereafter.
“We are really sorry to all customers impacted by this. We are working to get everyone safely on the move again as soon as possible.”
#VTUPDATE Signalling has been restored through the affected area on some lines, services can now begin to move but will be subject to further delays and potentially cancellation. Please keep up to date here - https://t.co/5YTKMXDozb
— Virgin Trains (@VirginTrains) September 26, 2018
Euston Station was also hit with delays as people made their way to the Labour conference at the weekend, with passengers describing "chaotic scenes" at London's fifth busiest station.