Stansted Airport Faces Travel Chaos as Trains Cancelled, Fire Briefly Halts Security
London Stansted Airport is experiencing significant disruption Wednesday morning due to a signalling fault impacting rail services and a small fire within the terminal. All trains to and from the airport have been cancelled or severely delayed, and security checks where temporarily halted.
A signalling system failure is affecting CrossCountry trains between Birmingham New Street and Stansted,as well as Greater Anglia services to and from the airport and London Liverpool Street. National Rail expects the disruption to continue until 08:00 BST. Motorists also face substantial delays on the M11 and M25 in Essex, potentially impacting passengers travelling to the airport by road.
Compounding the travel issues, a fire broke out in the airport’s Escape Lounge at approximately 03:30, generating “a significant amount of smoke.” Airport fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze, and no injuries were reported. While security was temporarily closed, it reopened at 06:00, though passengers are warned to expect delays and check their flight status.
“While travellers were stopped from entering security for a time,at 06:00 it reopened,but the airport warned there could be delays and urged passengers to check the status of their flights,” a Stansted spokesperson said.
Passengers are advised to check with National Rail (https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/stansted-airport-20250924/) and their airlines for the latest travel facts. Further traffic updates can be found on the BBC News website (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c07v5kdk5n5o).
