A major headache for CTrain riders Thursday morning heading into downtown.

Around 6:30 a.m., the power went down along the line in the core, leaving all of the trains in the area dead in their tracks, which in turn affected service across the city.

The delay lasted nearly three hours and acting director of Calgary Transit Russell Davies said a train in the core struck something overhead and it seriously damaged the power line above the track.

“That damage caused the vehicle to stop,” Davies said. “Then, our power systems basically tried to protect themselves by shutting off power in the immediate area of that incident, which obviously caused all of the vehicles to basically stop. That’s a fairly major event for us and it happened in a fairly significant part of our system.”

Repair to LRT line near City Hall station is now complete and trains are running in all directions #LRTrepair #yyc @calgarytransit — ENMAX (@ENMAX) July 16, 2015

50 shuttle buses were used during the event, nearly all the vehicles that were available.

Thousands of commuters were impacted by the delays, with many left stranded in the rain unable to get in and out of the downtown.

Chinook Station was one of the most packed areas for commuters waiting for a shuttle bus.

Although her employer was understanding, Michelle had about an hour and half added on to her commute.

“It’s kind of frustrating,” she said. “I waited for six of the buses and I still couldn’t get on them, so I called a ride.”

Ana, who commuted from McKenzie Towne, wasn’t impressed with how many buses were available and hopes transit will review their emergency protocol.

“I’m not sure how many buses they have on the routes for emergencies like this, but it would be nice to see a little bit more,” she explained. “There is some good station management here though, trying to get people going, but there’s no queue, so you basically have to rush to get on the bus to get on it, which sucks.”

The delays also impacted Rogers employees.

Angela Steffens from the IT department got on at Marlborough Station in the northeast and had to stop at Bridgeland.

“It was pure chaos,” she described. “People were pushing and shoving. Buses couldn’t move, People were stuck in front of the buses.”

Kiss 95.9’s Sasha Spencer had a similar experience and ended up walking from Sunnyside station.

“People of course had their umbrellas out and were in very tight quarters,” she said. “I was afraid I was going to get my eye-gouged out by a bad umbrella spoke.”