London commuters were facing travel “chaos” on Tuesday afternoon as a track-side gas leak left trains to and from Euston station delayed by up to 90 minutes.
All train lines have reopened following the leak which happened near Harrow, but “major disruption” was expected to affect services between Rugby and Euston throughout rush hour until 10.30pm.
National Rail said services could be cancelled or affected by “severe” delays of up to an hour-and-a-half as the incident unfolded, but delays were later reduced to being up to half-an-hour.
Not looking good from Euston pic.twitter.com/pWDe8S4teF
— Roy Fairclough (@RoyFairclough3) August 8, 2023
One woman, who was travelling to north Wales with three grandhildren, described the situation as “chaos”.
“Nothing out of London Euston due to gas leak so diverted to Marylebone & snailng it to Birmingham,” she wrote on Twitter. “Train so rammed all floor space full of sitting / standing people. eta + 4 hours so far!”
Another passenger described it as “a shambles”, while others shared photos on social media of huge crowds at Euston staring up at departure boards and awaiting updates on their trains.
Chaos at Euston as all Avanti West Coast services are withdrawn. Thanks to the lovely people at @chilternrailway at Marylebone Station who d/w the extra passengers with good will and competence. On our way.... pic.twitter.com/rK0PrK18hj
— @julieandersonwriter (@jjulieanderson) August 8, 2023
Trains run by Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway, and Southern are affected.
Avanti West Coast services may terminate or start back from Watford Junction, said National Rail.
Southern trains that would usually run between Clapham Junction and Watford Junction will instead run between Clapham Junction and Shepherd’s Bush.
People using the affected services are urged to check their journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.
