Tube snow fail leaves teen stranded after concert (From Surrey Comet)

Tube snow fail leaves Morden teen stranded after concert

8:48am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in Wimbledon By Omar Oakes

A fun night out ended in misery for a teenager and her friends after they were stranded four hours in the freezing on the other side of London due to the weekend's sudden snowfall.

Samantha Haque, 17, was unable to return home on Saturday night after attending a pop concert at the O2 arena to watch Olly Murs, because London Underground (LU) had shut North Greenwich tube station and suspended the Jubilee Line at 10.30pm.

The three girls then waited for over four hours until 2.45am until a cab was finally able to pick them up, because there were no rail replacement buses and there was a huge queue of people waiting for taxis.

Her mother, Sabeya Haque, said she had to pay £120 for a return cab to Greenwich to their home in Leamington Avenue, Morden, and criticised LU for not providing extra buses on the night.

She said: “It was cold, the road was full of snow, and there was no authority to give any information as to why the delay with the bus.

“I was going out of my mind with worry... I just rang my local taxi company and booked a taxi to take me all the way to O2 and pick the girls up and bring them home."

Howard Collins, London Underground’s chief operating officer, said the volume of snow fall caused points failures on the northern end of the Jubilee Line, which caused the entire line to be suspended.

Mr Collins said: "The vast majority of London Underground services continued to operate throughout the severe weather this weekend, helping many hundreds of thousands of Londoners to get around the city.

"Our preparations included deploying hundreds of staff across the network to keep depots and stations open and de-icing trains running regularly, and we continue to work hard to keep planned services running on all lines and to keep London moving.

“Those customers who stayed in the area overnight were given free Tube transport on Sunday. We apologise to passengers who were affected by this.”

---

How did the weekend's snow affect you? Call 020 8722 6333, tweet @WimbledonNews or email: newsdesk@wimbledonguardian.co.uk.