TRAPPED IN THE DARK.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18844, 6 April 1931, Page 7

TRAPPED IN THE DARK.

, . UNDERGROUND TRAIN STOP. .. LONDON’S “RUSH” HOUR. Practically the whole of the underground traffic system of London came to a standstill on January 22, at a time when the workers were returning to their suburban homes. Lot’s Road power station failed at 6.45 p.m. All lights went out, and within a few seconds six underground railway services and two tramway systems were brought to a standstill. The stations were in pitch dark, and in the tunnels frightened passengers found themselves imprisoned in unlit carriages. Emergency lighting was switched on, but the oppresive heat and gloom caused many women to become hysterical. Many fainted. People were afraid to approach th 9 exists for fear of stumbling on the lines Scores sat where they were on the escalators and waited for assistance. Vast queues formed up outside the telephone boxes, where travellers hurried to inform their homes of their plight, and many found their way to the booking offices by the light oi matches and petrol lighters to demand the return of their fare money Minutes seemed like hours. Most of the escalators had “struck’ m sympathy with the trains, and those which were working—served by a supply of current obtained from a different source—were soon doing double duty, taking to the surface hundreds of passengers who abandoned hope of ever reaching their destination by train. The great army of people returning home struck the incoming theatre-goers, and the result was that the tube system became a gigantic pen in which thousands upon thousands milled and shuffled blindly in the. dark like an enormous herd of frightened cattle. Platforms between South Kensington and Gloucester Road were jammed with trapped passengers. Those caught in the tunnels were in the worst plight, but during their halfhour’s incarceration the barriers of isolation were broken down in every direction, and once the gatemen were able to pass along the information that there was do danger, conversation became general. > -