A fault at a suburban electricity substation during routine maintenance cut power to Wellington this afternoon, blacking out shops and trapping people in lifts ahead of rush hour.
The fault at Transpower's Wilton substation cut power throughout Wellington about 3.20pm, and power was restored about 4.30pm.
The cause of the outage, which affected the city from Seatoun in the south to Khandallah in the north, was not yet known but it happened while maintenance was being carried out on the substation, a Transpower spokeswoman said.
"Most traffic lights were on back-up power system, so traffic's not in chaos, but trolley buses stopped, a few reports of people stuck in lifts," Wellington City Council spokesman Richard Maclean said, before power was restored.
Most shops were without power, meaning there was no eft-pos and many had to stop trading.
Trains had been running but the public address system at Wellington Railway Station was out, an Ontrack spokesman said.
A small segment of track north of Wellington station, to Kaiwharawhara, was affected but there was enough power to drive trains through the section, he said.
Train barrier arms appeared to be working normally, although police had received reports that some were down and drivers had driven around them despite the fact the trains were still running.
There had been some near misses at traffic lights that had gone out, with drivers not sticking to the give way rules, Sergeant Mark Oliver said.
The police communications centre was unaffected, although there were more calls than usual.
