In article , Cast_Iron
writes
ok then. so what would happen to the tube if london's power
got cut? im guessing theres no auxillary system in
place....is there? i think i remember something about them
having their own fossil fuel power generators...

It has been on a number of occasions. What happened? The trains stopped.

Yes, but in New York the power was predicted not to be restored for
anything up to three days. That's the sort of thing that's unthinkable
in the UK (even last autumn's storms didn't knock out major cities to
that extent, even if some villages suffered). A predicted 50m people
were cut off (the same as the UK's entire population).

Almost 24 hours later they still haven't restored all the power. And
*none* of New York's subway system (and almost all their other trains)
were announced overnight as cancelled for the whole day.

From www.msnbc.com as I type:

"New York City’s subway system remained closed, and city
officials said it would take six to eight hours to resume
operations after full electrical service was restored."

There's still no indication of what caused the problem, Cleveland is
having a serious problem with water supply, Air Canada has cancelled all
flights, and Detroit is going to take all weekend to have power
restored, apparently.
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