Northern line suspended plunging rush hour commuters into chaos

4 September 2019, 10:13

London's busiest tube line ground to a halt today plunging rush hour commuters into chaos.

A signalling failure meant no trains were able to operate on the Northern line, which runs between north and south London via the centre of the capital.

The problem began at around 6am on what is the first day back at school for many pupils.

By 9am, the fault still had not been resolved, leaving thousands of travellers in misery.

Passengers were advised that tickets would be accepted on trains, trams and buses.

The Northern line is normally used by around 800,000 people each day.

London Underground director of customer service Brian Woodhead said: "I am extremely sorry for the disruption suffered by customers on the Northern line today following a signalling system failure at our control centre.

"Our engineers are working hard to fix the problem and restore a full service as quickly as possible."

Passengers took to social media to express their frustration at the disruption.

Kate Henderson wrote: "I try not to tweet about my travel delays, but this morning takes the biscuit... it's the first day back at school, it's raining, the entire Northern line is down and I've just seen a fight at the bus stop. On the plus side just getting to work will be a real sense of achievement!"

Another passenger, using the Twitter username Fatima, posted: "Fix your service ASAP. Today is my first day of work and now I'm finding it so hard to get there. Line closed and buses all full. Annoyed to the max."

There were also severe delays on the Metropolitan line as a new signalling system is rolled out.