Certainly, if there was a power surge, there should be a very good
record that it occurred.

There wasn't a power surge. Initial indications suggested this as the most
likely cause of the symptoms showing (traction current going off
unexpectedly in multiple locations). When more information came to light,
the true cause became apparent. LUL have confirmed that there was no power
surge.


"Duncan" wrote:

My personal thought is that this was just a cover story to avoid mass
panic while trying to evacuate the rest of the Underground network.
[...]
Certainly the very early report stated "British Transport Police said
the incident happened on the Metroplitan Line and may have been caused
by two trains colliding, a power cut or a power cable exploding",
which was vague considering they had enough information to decide to
close the whole network down.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.


I think that you are.

The reason for the network-wide closure was initially given as "power supply
problems", and was not changed to "a network emergency" for a while
(actually, not until after the bus has exploded, although the penny may have
dropped before then - it obviously takes a few minutes for such information
to permeate through).


A very serious power surge might be enough to cause explosions, as well as
causing the traction current to go off. Even after initial reports of
explosions came through, it seems not unreasonable for a power surge to be
considered as the cause (in the absence of any other information suggesting
terrorism). And a difficult-to-trace power surge, causing explosions, is
enough information on its own to decide to close the whole network down.

According to CNN, Metronet [wrongly] admitted at 0927 that a power surge had
caused an explosion at a station. The order for staff to evacuate came some
time after the order to close the system to passengers (in fact, the system
was closed to passengers before the bus exploded, but staff were not ordered
to evacuate until after it had exploded). This all suggests
that a power surge was still the accepted theory at the time that the
network was closed.



MetroGnome