London's Central Line chaos caused by Thames Water's two million litre flood

Heavy rain continues unabated and long delays are expected on the Underground today. Yesterday, hundreds of passengers were trapped for two hours and then had to leave the train and walk down the tracks to escape.

“When we dug down to investigate a suspected leak, the earth around the pipe moved, causing it to burst.” said Thames Water bosses.

Damage to the 100-year-old pipe that occured during maintenence work between Stratford and Bow stations “The pipe was encased in concrete and as the crew was working it broke.” The flood of water caused signals on the Central line to short-circuit, which effectively took down the entire line.

The Central line is London Underground's longest tube line, serving 49 stations.

Staff worked all night to alleviate the flooding in an attempt ot return to normal service. TfL are warning of severe delays tonight for commuters.


Main image created by Julian Burgess
(NB: Gondolas are not actually being used as an alternative mode of transport)