Commuters faced widespread rail disruption last night in London after lightning struck Linford Street electrical substation in Wandsworth.
Many services travelling to and from London’s Victoria station were cancelled or severely delayed.
The lightning strike caused a fire which created substantial damage to the substation, leading to a power failure.
The substation was hit around 5:30pm last night and engineers worked ‘throughout the night’ to fix the ‘serious problem’.
Southeastern passengers also faced minor disruptions this morning as services struggled to get back on track.
A Southeastern spokesperson said:
“Lightning strikes across the region caused problems for many passengers travelling home yesterday evening. And we’re sorry that many people’s journeys took longer than they usually would.
“One lightning strike caused a fire at power station in Wandsworth which meant that Southeastern train services into and out of Victoria were suspended for several hours.
“Network Rail worked as quickly as possible to repair damage to the infrastructure so that train services could operate again.”
