Travel chaos for rush hour commuters tonight as the London Underground’s Central Line will be closed at 5pm. It will reopen by 6.30pm.
Sources at Transport for London (TfL) told MailOnline that the late-notice decision, which will be announced shortly, is because of a lack of available control room staff.
Transport bosses are advising passengers travelling through the capital to complete their journeys as soon as possible because there will be no service available.
People riding the London Underground Central Line train during extreme heat Tuesday
A message purported to have been sent by Des Friel, service control manager for the Central and Waterloo & City lines, was tweeted at 12.20pm today about the Central line closure
A message purported to have been sent by Des Friel, service control manager for the Central and Waterloo & City lines, was tweeted at 12.20pm today about the closure.
It stated that the Central Line would be suspended this evening due to illness. The last trains to central London from Liverpool Street will depart at 6pm, and White City will leave at 6 pm.
“Should additional SRT employees be available, we will operate a shuttle service Leytonstone-EPP/Hainault. We will provide train numbers and timings for the last trains once we confirm them with you.
‘SRT’ stands for Special Requirements Team – part of TfL which provides a mobile station staff team for upgrades and projects – and ‘EPP’ stands for Epping station.
Greater Anglia initially made the announcement in a tweet at 12.30pm. Some Twitter users thought it was one month old. This was due to the RMT Tube strike of June 21.
Tweet: “Please be advised London Underground Central Line is closing at 17:00, with complete closure expected by 18:30.” TfL advises that you complete your journey as quickly as possible, as no service will be available.
MailOnline was informed by Greater Anglia that the tweet had been correctly published and was based upon advice from Transport for London’s control center.
MailOnline received confirmation from TfL that the information was accurate and that communications to passengers announcing late notice changes would be forthcoming.
However, at the time of publication, there was no confirmation from the public that it had been closed.
Stay tuned for more