KENT commuters were stranded for as long as 90 minutes last night when trains were literally stopped in their tracks by a massive power cut in London.

Passengers returning to the county were among tens of thousands in the South East stuck on trains and platforms.

Connex spokesman Sarah Boundy said: "This would have caused widespread disruption as we carry 120,000 people a day in and out of London. Many commuters would have come from Medway. Trains were stopped wherever they were even between stations."

Network Rail spokesman Steve Turner said: "Without power it is impossible to run the trains. We had to wait until the electricity was back on again and then our staff had to work overtime to help get the huge backlog of passengers moving again."

The National Grid power failure happened at around 6.20pm and was not restored until around 7pm. But it took another hour for trains to get moving again as railway signals had to be reset.

Ms Boundy said: "We also had delays because we had to check that there were no passengers on the tracks. We had reports that passengers fed up with the delays had got off the trains and walked on the lines between London Bridge and Charing Cross.

"This was, of course, extremely dangerous because the third rail carry 750 volts, which can easily kill."

The power cut had affected all of South East London and Kent up to Dartford. Rail staff were hampered in their efforts to keep the passengers informed because even the electronic message system on platforms were cut off.

Passengers stuck on trains and platforms were told of the disruption via tannoy services. Connex rapidly organised bus services at stations such as Gillingham as an alternative.

Ms Boundy said: "After the power was back on we organised the trains so that the service would be entirely back to normal the following morning."