Branch line: there’s been no service between Addington Village and New Addington for five days. TfL is providing a shuttle bus until the power issue is fixed
Tram passengers wanting to travel to or from New Addington could face further days of no service due to a prolonged problem with a power outage at Addington Village.
There have been no trams running on the New Addington branch for five days, since last Thursday when the whole network, from Beckenham Junction to Wimbledon via Mitcham, was shut down due to a power cut at the Therapia Lane depot.
UK Power Networks restored the power at Therapia Lane by late morning on Thursday. But there was no service restored between Addington Village and New Addington. That line has had no service since, according to Transport for London “due to a related power failure at Addington Village.”
Sidelined: TfL is still not clear what has caused the power outage at Addington Village
Tonight, the cause of that power outage is still under investigation.
TfL told Inside Croydon: “Our immediate priority is to restore service to all tram customers in the affected area. A full review of the incident will be carried out to determine what went wrong and why.”
It could still be days before a full service is resumed.
“We’re installing a power protection device tonight at a substation in New Addington,” a TfL spokesperson said.
“After that, we’ll test the power using out-of-service trams overnight. If the tests go well, we hope to restore full service over the next couple of days.
“We apologise to customers whose journeys have been affected. While trams are suspended, a shuttle bus is running between New Addington and Addington Village to help customers stay connected to the network.”
Elsewhere on south London’s creaking transport network, TfL has said this afternoon that they have finally fixed a persistent signalling fault on the District Line at East Putney.
“A full service is operating again on the Wimbledon branch of the District line,” TfL said.
“We worked with Network Rail engineers throughout the disruption to pinpoint the issue. Faults were found within a lineside cable and other trackside equipment, which required extensive engineering work.
“We understand that the service on the branch over the last two weeks fell short of expectations. We are very sorry for the delays you experienced, and would like to thank you for your patience during this time.”
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