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Tennis fans stranded as Tube trains are halted
Jack Lefley and Shekhar Bhatia3 Jul 2008
Thousands of fans trying to get to Wimbledon faced travel chaos today.
The District line to SW19 was suspended for nearly two hours because of signalling and communications problems with no Tubes running to Wimbledon, Wimbledon Park and Southfields stations.
Hordes of fans stranded at Earl's Court station were told to catch buses to reach the tournament.
The entire District, Circle, Hammersmith & City lines and Bakerloo line services south of Queen's Park were suspended at one stage after problems with communications equipment meant drivers could not speak to the control room. A TfL spokeswoman said most services resumed shortly before midday.
Jacqueline Jackson, 24, of Hartlepool, endured an extra two hours on her journey to reach Wimbledon.
She said: "It was a complete nightmare. I got into Victoria Coach Station at 10am and then had to go around the Tube network to Waterloo. To add insult to injury I had to pay another £2.90 for a rail ticket to Wimbledon, even though I had already forked out for the Tube. "
Ali Mohammed, 19, of Luton, who took the same route, said: "There are going to be a lot of people who will miss the start of the tennis because of the Tube delay. "
It was women's semi-final day at Wimbledon-today with the Williams sisters biddingto face each other in the final. Venus's clash with Russia's Elena Dementieva on Centre Court will be followed by sister Serena's battle with China's Zheng Jie.
After Andy Murray's exit from the tournament yesterday British hopes rest with his brother Jamie and teenage star Laura Robson. Jamie Murray has reached the mixed double semi finals with US player Liezel Huber. Robson has made it through to the girl's quarter-finals and was facing ninth seed Bojana Jovanovski from Serbia on Court 18 today.
But rain threatened to disrupt play and more bad weather is expected over the weekend. A Met Office spokesman said: "There is definitely a risk of showers at various points of the day so disruptions to play are likely. Friday should be a bit better but the weekend is looking rather unsettled with plenty of rain on the way."
Police made four arrests at Wimbledon yesterday. Two women arrested with pepper spray and a man caught with a lock knife were cautioned and released. A minicab driver was charged with fraud and driving without insurance after showing police a private hire licence belonging to another person. He was bailed.
Reader views (1)
What a shame, do none of these people own a tv.
- Anon, UK, 04/07/2008 07:18
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