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Contractors rushed to the supermarket to buy sugar to slow a flood of fast setting cement which was accidentally pumped into a control room at one of London’s busiest Tube stations.

Victoria Line services from Brixton to Warren Street were suspended overnight after the mixture being poured into foundations of a £700m upgrade at Victoria leaked into a bunker packed with vital signalling equipment.

Contractors worked through the night to repair the damage. Peter McNaught, Operations Director for the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines, said: “Our engineers have worked tirelessly through the night and have successfully repaired the damaged signalling equipment. A good service is now operating across the Victoria line.



“We again apologise to our customers who were affected by yesterday’s disruption.”

A source told the Standard contractors were dispatched to nearby supermarkets to buy bags of sugar in a desperate bid to stop the knee-deep concrete from setting.

TfL today came under fire for initially informing commuters the line closure was due to “flooding” but the cover was blown when a worker posted photographs showing racks signalling equipment submerged in cement.

The worker said: “The only word for it is a f*** up of major proportions. Everyone was f-ing and blinding when they realised what had happened.

“It was knee-deep in the signal room swamping all the relay equipment and it’s going to be very, very expensive to repair because it was all brand new.”

In pictures: leaked concrete in Victoria Line control room 9 show all In pictures: leaked concrete in Victoria Line control room 1/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 2/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 3/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 4/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 5/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 6/9 Delays TfL initially blamed flooding for the delays 7/9 Suspended The Victoria line was suspended between Brixton and Warren Street (Picture: Nigel Howard) Nigel Howard 8/9 Closed Commuters had to find alternative routes home (Picture: Nigel Howard) Nigel Howard 9/9 Queues Tube stations became crowded as commuters struggled to find a way home (Picture: Nigel Howard) Nigel Howard 1/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 2/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 3/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 4/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 5/9 Concrete leak The Victoria Line control room. (Picture: Usvsth3m.com) 6/9 Delays TfL initially blamed flooding for the delays 7/9 Suspended The Victoria line was suspended between Brixton and Warren Street (Picture: Nigel Howard) Nigel Howard 8/9 Closed Commuters had to find alternative routes home (Picture: Nigel Howard) Nigel Howard 9/9 Queues Tube stations became crowded as commuters struggled to find a way home (Picture: Nigel Howard) Nigel Howard

Furious commuters today branded the blunder a “farce”. Trains were suspended from 1.30pm yesterday causing delays and misery for thousands across much of central London including Victoria and Oxford Circus stations.

Steve Williams, 27, an IT worker who commutes in from Oxford, said: “It’s a rubbish excuse to say there was a signal failure. They should just be honest in the first place.

“It’s stupid more than anything. I guess stupidity has ruled the day here.”

Daniel Amran, 26, an energy analyst, from Hendon, said: “It’s pretty awful to be honest. That particular route has been delayed three times in the last three days.”

Robert Flagg, 26, an engineer, from Canada Water, said: “As an engineer I’m thinking why was it there in the first place? They probably need to rethink their procedures.”

Richard Donovan, 37, a communications manager from Nottingham, said: “It’s one of those where someone has obviously made a horrendous mistake, but these things happen.”

The concrete was being used by private contractors who are building a major upgrade to the station due to be completed in 2018.

They were pouring it into voids in excavations for a new escalator control room when it seeped through to the control room below.

The source said: “The signalling room sits between the north and southbound tracks and it’s the main box controlling trains for the entire southern half of the line. They were pumping in concrete for an escalator tunnel down to the new platform and there must have been a crack or a hole.

“When they realised what had happened they went out and bought bags of sugar and threw it on because that stops concrete from setting as quickly.

“Hopefully it won’t take too long to sort out because they caught it in time before it set, but it’s not something that can be done overnight.

“TfL were telling people the reason for the closure was flooding, because technically it was. They just didn’t say it was flooded with concrete. They didn’t want people to know what a cock-up it was.”

Nigel Holness, operations director of London Underground, said: “Our engineers are working hard to resolve the situation as soon as possible to get services back up and running.”

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How Twitter responded with flood of jokes

James Martin: BREAKING NEWS: Cement brings the Victoria Line to a halt. Mortar follow.

Tim Miller: There’s no hard and fast rule for dealing with these sort of situations, unfortunately.

Paul Silburn: Concrete on the victoria line is affecting services to Brickston and connections to the Cementral Line

Mike White: So the Victoria Line is closed due to a cement spillage. Customers are advised to use the Blue Circle line.

BBC London Travel: Rail Repla-Cement bus,

Ange: So the Victoria line will be down for the foreseeable future due to concrete flooding, nothing’s set in stone though

Tom Edwards: Grout news this morning was that the line was running again

Boris Watch: “quick drying concrete” is almost certainly not what it was