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Power Outage Hits London
Aired August 28, 2003 - 14:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As you can see, our staff there in the control room working a story right now, the lights out in London. We're told power outages all across central England right now.
Our Fionnuala Sweeney joins us live from London.
Fionnuala, what's the deal?
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the details are still coming into us.
But we can show you live pictures of the city of London as we speak. It's almost 7:30 in the evening here, as people try to make their way home. And just over an hour ago, there was, according to the power spokespeople, a power circuit cut at the national grid, which has affected a lot of power in and around London. But because it happened at quarter past 6:00 in the evening -- that is 6:15 -- a lot of commuters were traveling home from work.
Tens of thousands of people come into central London to work every day. And we understand that the underground system has been badly affected by this and people are stuck underground. We know that the power people are working to repair this problem at the national grid. But, at the moment, they say the emphasis is also on trying to get people out of the underground and, indeed, to get the rail stations working as well, a number of stations in and around central London badly affected.
PHILLIPS: And, Fionnuala, it's so strange looking at these pictures, because it was just a few weeks ago here in the United States we were seeing the same exact thing, particularly in New York and with the underground system.
What do you know? The London Underground saying that problems were caused by a failure on the national power grid. Has this been an issue in London? Has there been a lot of talk about the power grid and how it's overloaded, like here in the U.S.?
SWEENEY: There's always been a lot of talk about the public transport system in England, particularly the commuter services into London, but never really talk so much about an overloaded power system.
But, of course, what happened in New York and the Northeastern United States and Canada a couple of weeks ago did lend itself to some discussion here about that. But, really, the focus has often been on the rather old and antiquated underground system, which works, but, particularly in the very hot and exceptionally dry spell we've been having here over the last few months, has caused a lot of problems underground because of the high rise in temperature there.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fionnuala Sweeney out of London there, we will continue to check in with you as we follow this developing story out of London, England, once again, power outages all throughout the capital in southeast England right now causing some serious disruptions on the London Underground and some other train lines.
Right now, London Underground saying that the problems were caused by a failure on the national power grid. It's a story that hits close to home here in the United States, something we went through just a few weeks ago. You see the pictures here, a lot folks, just like New York City, you'll remember, when the transportation system shut down, not sure where to go or what to do, as they depend on the tube and the train to get from one place to another in England there.
We'll continue to follow the story.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 28, 2003 - 14:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As you can see, our staff there in the control room working a story right now, the lights out in London. We're told power outages all across central England right now.
Our Fionnuala Sweeney joins us live from London.
Fionnuala, what's the deal?
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the details are still coming into us.
But we can show you live pictures of the city of London as we speak. It's almost 7:30 in the evening here, as people try to make their way home. And just over an hour ago, there was, according to the power spokespeople, a power circuit cut at the national grid, which has affected a lot of power in and around London. But because it happened at quarter past 6:00 in the evening -- that is 6:15 -- a lot of commuters were traveling home from work.
Tens of thousands of people come into central London to work every day. And we understand that the underground system has been badly affected by this and people are stuck underground. We know that the power people are working to repair this problem at the national grid. But, at the moment, they say the emphasis is also on trying to get people out of the underground and, indeed, to get the rail stations working as well, a number of stations in and around central London badly affected.
PHILLIPS: And, Fionnuala, it's so strange looking at these pictures, because it was just a few weeks ago here in the United States we were seeing the same exact thing, particularly in New York and with the underground system.
What do you know? The London Underground saying that problems were caused by a failure on the national power grid. Has this been an issue in London? Has there been a lot of talk about the power grid and how it's overloaded, like here in the U.S.?
SWEENEY: There's always been a lot of talk about the public transport system in England, particularly the commuter services into London, but never really talk so much about an overloaded power system.
But, of course, what happened in New York and the Northeastern United States and Canada a couple of weeks ago did lend itself to some discussion here about that. But, really, the focus has often been on the rather old and antiquated underground system, which works, but, particularly in the very hot and exceptionally dry spell we've been having here over the last few months, has caused a lot of problems underground because of the high rise in temperature there.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fionnuala Sweeney out of London there, we will continue to check in with you as we follow this developing story out of London, England, once again, power outages all throughout the capital in southeast England right now causing some serious disruptions on the London Underground and some other train lines.
Right now, London Underground saying that the problems were caused by a failure on the national power grid. It's a story that hits close to home here in the United States, something we went through just a few weeks ago. You see the pictures here, a lot folks, just like New York City, you'll remember, when the transportation system shut down, not sure where to go or what to do, as they depend on the tube and the train to get from one place to another in England there.
We'll continue to follow the story.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
