Nightmare before Christmas as trains trapped for hours

Fury at rail bosses as passengers led down tracks after power wire damage

- Ross Lydall

RAIL chiefs today faced demands for an urgent investigation into the "nightmare journeys" suffered by thousands of passengers trapped for about four hours on trains in west London.

Seven trains - four Elizabeth line, two Heathrow Express and a Great Western Railway intercity service were stranded when the GWR train crashed into broken power lines near Ladbroke Grove at about 6.30pm last night.

Passengers on the packed Elizabeth line trains, including families heading into central London for Christmas shows, travellers who had landed at Heathrow and TV presenter Rachel Riley, were eventually led along the tracks to safety at about 10.30pm.

They had been left in the cold and dark for hours as the on-board power failed, with the driver of one east-bound train telling passengers he could not get through to the control centre. It is understood drivers on tracks west of Paddington rely on advice from Network Rail's signalling centre in Swindon. Transport lack of on-board information. Some passengers had to be lowered on to the tracks to urinate as TfL's £1 billion fleet of trains - which can carry in excess of 1,000 passengers were deliberately built without lavatories.