An electricity supply failure at a communications centre is causing major disruption to trains in the Midlands and north-west England, National Rail has said. The outage occurred shortly before 2pm in Manchester and has impacted signalling, Network Rail said.
Impact on services
The power failure was at Manchester Rail Operating Centre, near Ashburys station, according to the city’s Bee Network. CrossCountry Trains and Transport for Wales reported a signalling system fault at Manchester Piccadilly station had halted services. Train operators Northern and TransPennine Express advised customers not to travel, with the latter saying its trains were “unable to run safely” because of a failure in the communications systems on the network.
National Rail expects journeys to be impacted until at least the end of the day and said services in the Greater Manchester area, the Midlands and north-west England are particularly affected by the outage.
Official response
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she is “receiving regular updates” while Network Rail works to resolve what she described as a “power outage”. Ms Alexander added: “Disruption is expected during the rest of the day, so please check before you travel.”
The Manchester facility that experienced the outage was one of 12 operating centres built to eventually manage the entire British rail network, Network Rail said when it opened in 2014. These facilities replaced 800 signal boxes and other operational locations then used to control trains. It was planned that the Manchester Rail Operating Centre would control all of the railway in north-west England by 2034.
Additional disruption
A wartime bomb being discovered near the railway between Tamworth and Burton-on-Trent is also adding to the disruption, with all lines blocked, National Rail said. A National Rail spokesperson said: “This is expected to cause major disruption until the end of the day. If you’re travelling Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern, Northern, TransPennine Express, or Transport for Wales in the affected area, your train may be cancelled, delayed, or revised. Please allow extra time to make your journey this afternoon as you may need to use an alternative route or change trains part-way through to reach your destination.”
Advice for passengers
Chris Wright, Network Rail North West route director, said: “We’re sorry to passengers impacted by a power issue in Manchester which is causing significant delays to trains through the city.” Some services are running but major disruption is expected to continue throughout the day, he said. Mr Wright urged customers to check National Rail Enquiries before travelling and said ticketholders can travel on any Bee Network services.
Andrew McClements, customer experience and transformation director for TransPennine Express, described the impact as significant in Manchester and across its network. He added: “We’re sorry for the disruption and thank our customers for their patience.” During “significant disruption”, passengers want “clear and useful information as soon as it’s available and plenty of staff on hand to help”, said Alex Campbell, policy director of the independent watchdog Transport Focus. He reminded those affected to claim Delay Repay compensation if they are delayed.
