Trains, planes and automobiles: chaotic weekend awaits as power outage hits commuters

Threat of strikes could prolong travel misery

As one of the busiest weekends of the year gets under way, hundreds of thousands of commuters are wondering just how bad their Friday journeys will be.

The main line from London Victoria via Gatwick Airport to Brighton was largely closed throughout Thursday after the power supply to signals near Streatham Common in south London was cut.

“The failure has been traced to a faulty power supply cable which feeds off the national grid,” said Network Rail.

“A temporary fix has been made and services are now able to run on all lines again.

“Network Rail engineers will be working through the night to resolve this incident.

“Unfortunately due to the severity of the signalling fault, this could potentially extend into tomorrow morning.”

All four tracks were blocked between two of Britain’s busiest stations – Clapham Junction and East Croydon – and passengers were urged not to travel.

Disruption was forecast to continue until 7am at the earliest on Friday morning.

Departure boards at London’s Victoria railway station display a list of cancelled trains (Getty)

To ease crowding, standard-class passengers will be allowed in first class on all Southern and Thameslink services.

Thousands of passengers with flights from Gatwick missed their flights. A few trains were running from London Bridge and St Pancras stations, and National Express buses were operating between Victoria and Gatwick.

Jane Kelly tweeted: “Anyone going on holiday today, via Victoria station & their ‘Gatwick Express’ is going to miss their flight.

“Incredible. We are turning into a third world country.”

Across the Channel, British holidaymakers driving through France will encounter the busiest weekend of the year on the southbound autoroutes.

The predicted traffic flows on 5, 6 and 7 July on major routes will be “very difficult” heading south from Paris and “difficult” in the area around Lyon.

French rail workers have called another two-day strike on Saturday and Sunday in their long-running dispute with SNCF, the rail enterprise, over modernisation and competition.

The stoppage is expected to add to pressure on the roads.

In the skies, thunderstorms over Luxembourg, western and southern Germany and Switzerland are causing “moderate to high” delays, according to air traffic coordinator Eurocontrol.

The organisation also warned of staff shortages among controllers in Marseille and Karlsruhe, in western Germany.

Ryanair said: “French and German ATC staff shortages have caused delays to 71 (16 per cent) of our 441 first wave of flight departures this morning.

“We sincerely regret these unjustified delays and are doing our utmost to limit their impact on flights throughout the rest of today.”

Pilots and cabin crew at Europe’s biggest budget airline are threatening to strike later in July.