- Trains between the Midlands and Manchester were affected by a signal fault
- Are YOU stuck at Euston? Email fran.wolfisz@dailymail.co.uk
Commuters have warned of ‘complete chaos’ and ‘a dangerous crush’ at Euston Station as peak-hour passengers are stuck on trains with ‘broken air conditioning’ after a signal failure.
The situation has been made worse by a faulty announcement system, meaning rail bosses have not been able to fully communicate with commuters about what has happened.
London Euston posted on
The message added: “We are truly sorry for the passengers affected.”
The signal failure at Watford Junction is affecting trains using the line between the Midlands and Manchester.
Avanti West Coast will be disrupted between London Euston and Wolverhampton, Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly and Edinburgh.
London Northwestern Railway is disrupted between London Euston and Tring, Milton Keynes Central, Birmingham New Street and Crewe.
The lines have now reopened following the switch failure at Watford Junction.
National Rail has warned that trains via Euston may be cancelled, delayed by up to 40 minutes or revised.
The company added on its website that the disruption will last until the end of the day.
Footage taken from the station shows hundreds of people standing and watching the announcement boards.
One disgruntled passenger described the station as ‘an oven’ and asked station bosses at X: ‘Can you turn up the air conditioning? Or turn it on.’
A commuter called Josh asked Euston Station at X to explain what had happened to the announcements.
The response was: ‘Hi Josh, we are currently having issues with the PA system, the volume is lower than normal. The station team will provide support with portable speakers in the meantime.
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‘Sorry about this, we are working hard on announcements and making sure trains run as quickly as possible.’
Another commuter wrote on
A third has ‘aabsolute chaos Euston with no idea which trains are running, delayed or cancelled. There’s no information at all and no guarantee they’ll get me home tonight.”
One social media user decided to diffuse the situation with a bit of humor, writing: “Euston, we have a problem.”
Meanwhile, commuters who were already traveling faced rising temperatures on stationary trains.
A concerned commuter told Avanti West Coast they had been on the train for an hour and were stuck in Coventry.
They tweeted: ‘May I suggest letting people know that they can leave the train and go to the platform to cool down? Standing room alone doesn’t help.’
Speaking to MailOnline, affected passenger Theo, 25, from South West London, said he was ‘stuck’ on a train traveling between Crewe and Euston Station at Watford Junction for more than two hours, between 4pm and after 6pm.
He said: ‘There was a faulty train at Watford junction blocking a line, and on top of that the switches were down, so everything was moving very slowly.
‘There were a lot of network rail guys in the spotlight. I think they sorted it all out, but there was clearly a long line [of trains] behind us.’
He added that a guard who was on his last day of a 20-year stint with London Northwestern Railway was “great at keeping us informed and aware of any issues.”
When the train finally started moving again, he described Euston Station as “very hot, no wind at all, and about as busy as I have seen it.”