Passengers have been locked out of Euston station after its concourse became overcrowded due to flooding and power cuts caused by Storm Bert.
Lights and information boards at the station turned blank as a power cut hit the station, National Rail warned.
Flooding between Rugby and Milton Keynes further disrupted services and hundreds of passengers could be seen trying to get their trains at the busy station.
Shutters were pulled closed at Euston and pictures showed passengers having to wait outside in the cold until there was more space inside the concourse.
Lottie Williams, who was dropping her mother off at Euston station, described how power outages at the station meant that only a few lights were working.
She said: “My mum and I got squished and shoved and people were running others over with luggage.
“People were flooding to the platform. They couldn’t manage the amount [of people] trying to get through.
“Passengers were shoving others onto the train and everyone was getting squished.
Ms Williams added: “There seemed to be no action plan since the power outage and no thought for safety in place at all
“ I know that Storm Bert was causing havoc in some stations nationwide but there should’ve been more staff around to help or announcements made about cancellations and delays.
“There were just hundreds of people standing around waiting staring at their Trainline apps and pushing and shoving.”
Another passenger who regularly uses Euston described how hundreds of travellers were locked both inside and outside the station.
She explained that they had tried to get the Northern Line to Euston but the train was unable to stop at the tube station due to a “security incident”.
Once they reached Euston she was met by closed barriers.
She explained: “People were inside we could see through the barriers but there was no information as to what was happening.
“We could hear trains and platforms being announced inside, so people were angry and desperate to get in on their trains.
“Eventually one barrier was opened which forced people to rush towards it in a crush. We got inside and no information boards were working, so everyone gathered around the information stand for spoken announcements.”
She added: “I travel through Euston at least twice a week and I have never experienced a crush that bad.”
The disruption comes as Storm Bert batters the UK, cancelling at least 200 flights at Heathrow Airport and flooding two to three hundred properties in Wales.
National Rail warned Euston was “extremely busy” and the number of people who could enter the station had been limited to allow people to safely board trains.
Providing an update to passengers trying to enter the terminal, Euston posted on X that it had been hit by “significant disruption”.
In one message responding to concerns about how busy the station was, Euston posted on X: “Our staff are managing a large volume of passengers following a significant number of trains being disrupted due to #StormBert To keep everyone safe in the station, we’re limiting entry until the concourse clears. Some trains are departing and our teams are doing everything they can to allow people to travel this evening.”
Euston Power Cut pic.twitter.com/7hVgFEiS5f
— Kathleen Ruane (@kruane1995) November 24, 2024
Trains were cancelled or delayed by up to 45 minutes.
Euston underground station was also forced to shut due to overcrowding.
Transport for London told customers the underground station was closed due to “overcrowding caused by faulty lighting at Euston National Rail Station”.
A spokesperson for Network Rail told the Standard: “Because of earlier power supply problems in the station, as well as flooding between Rugby and Milton Keynes, causing disruption to trains in and out of the station, Euston station is extremely busy. As a result we’ve had to limit entry into the station to allow people to safely board trains.
“We’re asking passengers to check with their train operator or nationalrail.co.uk for the latest train running information and apologise for any inconvenience caused to people’s journeys today”.
