TRAIN services were brought to a standstill around Cardiff today, after a mains failure damaged a standby generator, blacking out the main signalling panel at the start of the morning rush hour.
Trains are moving again now, but the crisis led Arriva Trains Wales to urge people not to travel, and the company’s website was so overwhelmed it could show only an emergency page.
Network Rail said a partial failure affecting one phase of the supply from the National Grid triggered a further fault, which short-circuited and disabled the standby generator at the main panel.
Signallers reported an ‘all stop’ at 07.07, and Arriva Trains Wales said some trains were halted for as much as two hours.
All services through Cardiff Central were suspended, and only limited replacement buses could be arranged to serve Newport, Bridgend, Radyr and Ystrad Mynach.
Power was restored at 10.00, but Network Rail warned that disruption would be likely for some time yet in South Wales, because many trains would now be out of position.
A spokesman added that there had been no risk to passengers, because such a loss of power would trigger ‘right side failures’, bringing trains safely to a stand. Engineers would now be investigating why the mains fault had damaged the generator.