AS power supplies in London were back to normal today commuters from the capital to Ipswich were still reeling at being left stranded when the tube ground to a halt.

AS power supplies in London were back to normal today commuters from the capital to Ipswich were still reeling at being left stranded when the tube ground to a halt.

A black out at the National Grid brought transport to a halt across the city and although it did not affect rail services from Liverpool Street to Ipswich it did cause havoc for commuters who could not get to the station.

One angry passenger told The Evening Star today that the number of people at bus stops and on the pavements was astronomical.

"The tubes were all shut, every taxi full and each bus stop had about 100 people queuing. The pavements were so crowded even walking was difficult. As I have relatives in north London I decided to stay overnight but it still took me two and a half hours to get there."

She was one of hundreds of thousands of London commuters were left stranded, in scenes reminiscent of last month's North American blackout, after a National Grid failure at around 6.30pm.

The cut caused hundreds of traffic lights to fail, and both mainline and Underground trains to come to a sudden halt, leaving thousands of passengers stuck in trains and tunnels.

Power was finally restored at 7pm and the transport network got moving again but Tube passengers were stuck in trains for up to an hour and a half.

There was disruption on the railways late into the night as congestion of services stranded passengers but services should run as normal today, a Network Rail spokesman said.

The National Grid today defended its record and apologised to 250,000 commuters stuck in the rush-hour power-cut which hit London last night.

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