Tube commuters complained they were left stranded on a Victoria line train for over an hour today without being told what was going on.
Passengers stuck in the tunnel were eventually evacuated from rear carriages to be met by paramedics and police when they reached safety.
Artist Andy Pankhurst said the train came to a stop just after it had left Seven Sisters station.
He said there were hardly any announcements about what was happening and there was no ventilation.
Mr Pankhurst, 44, was on his way to teach at the Prince's Drawing School at Kensington Palace.
He said: "I boarded the train at Walthamstow at 8.57 am. It was crowded and the train came to a stop at 9.17 am shortly after leaving Seven Sisters.
"After 10 minutes or so there was a brief announcement to say there was a traction problem. The train did try to move a couple of times.
"The carriage lights dimmed and the ventilation must have stopped as well. Eventually they brought an empty train with an engineer on board up to the rear of my train.
"The engineer then had to squeeze through the crowds on my train to reach the driver."
Mr Pankhurst continued; "Some passengers were then evacuated onto the second train which then reversed to Seven Sisters. My train followed shortly behind. I arrived back at Seven Sisters at 10.36 am - nearly an hour and a half after we first came to a stop.
"For the privilege of all this I was charged £11.50 (Oyster) fare and then £4.60 when I checked out at Seven Sisters, an amount I will now have to reclaim.
"I eventually arrived at Kensington Palace at 12.15 having left home at 8.30 am. It was not a good start to the week."
Delays on the Victoria line continued beyond lunchtime.
There was further severe disruption on the Central line - one of the lines highlighted today by Transport for London (TfL) as scheduled to take the brunt of Olympic and Paralympic Games crowds - following a signal failure at Holborn.
This resulted in severe delays throughout the length of the line.
London Underground Operations Director Nigel Holness, said: “I apologise to our customers who were delayed when Victoria Line services were disrupted this morning following a stalled train between Seven Sisters and Finsbury Park at 9.20am.
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“Before attempts to re-start the stalled train were successful, a second empty train was brought up and some passengers detrained onto it. This train was taken to Seven Sisters Station. The stalled train, once re-started, was driven back to Seven Sisters station and the remaining passengers detrained onto the platform there by 10.30am.”
