Travellers faced significant train disruption on Sunday, June 7, after emergency services responded to an incident between Bolton and Preston. Services were delayed or cancelled as a result, with disruption continuing until around 5pm. Passengers were urged to check services before travelling.
Incident Details
National Rail released a statement confirming that emergency services were dealing with an incident between Bolton and Preston. All lines between these stations were closed while emergency work was carried out. Trains were cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes, or revised. Services between Manchester Victoria and Blackburn were not impacted, and rail replacement services from Manchester Piccadilly were scheduled.
Affected Routes
The incident caused major disruption to several routes, including:
- Avanti West Coast services between London Euston and Glasgow Central
- Northern services between Manchester Airport and Blackpool North, Barrow-in-Furness, Millom, Windermere, and Corkickle
- TransPennine Express trains between Manchester Airport and Glasgow Central or Edinburgh
Alternative Travel Options
Train tickets were accepted on Bee Network services, including routes 8, V1, V2, 100, 607, 608, 609, 35, 132, 615, 575, 576, and 516.
Timeline of Events
At 15:02 BST, National Rail announced services would be cancelled or delayed by up to 60 minutes due to the incident, with disruption expected until at least 4:30pm. Avanti West Coast services were already diverting via Bolton due to engineering works between Warrington Bank Quay and Wigan North Western. By 15:15, British Transport Police had been contacted for a statement, though the exact location of the incident remained unclear. At 15:59, disruption was expected to last until 16:15. By 16:02, the incident was downgraded to a minor disruption by Northern Railways, though delays and cancellations persisted. At 16:24, passengers were still advised to expect delays. Services resumed normally by 16:48 BST, marking the end of live coverage at 17:15.
