Hundreds of travellers were left stranded on Thursday after a power failure in Manchester sparked mass disruption across a large swathe of the rail network.
Commuters faced two-hour delays and cancellations across the Midlands, Greater Manchester, and northwest England following the outage at a Network Rail operating centre.
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.
Andrew McClements, customer experience and transformation director at TPE, described the impact as significant in Manchester and across its network.
He said: “I’d like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding through what has been a difficult incident to manage. Sadly, we’re not out of the woods yet and we expect some disruption to our services in the morning as a knock-on of this afternoon’s issues.
“We are asking anyone planning to travel with TPE on Friday to check carefully before they travel and to allow extra time for any journeys.”
Companies affected by the disruption included Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, Northern, TransPennine Express, and Transport for Wales.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “sorry to hear passengers in the North West are affected by a power outage”.
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.
An electrical fault at Manchester Piccadilly also halted trains in April.
Network Rail said at the time that an extended 12-hour closure of the railway was needed for repairs because of the “complex area where this took place, with over 400 metres of damaged lines”.
On Thursday, Chris Wright, Network Rail’s North West route director, said: “I’m extremely sorry for the disruption and the very difficult journeys many people have experienced.
“We’re warning people to expect further disruption tomorrow morning. I’d urge people to ensure they check National Rail Enquiries before they set off on any planned journeys tomorrow, with further cancellations and delays likely.”
A wartime bomb was also discovered near the railway between Tamworth and Burton-on-Trent, adding to the disruption, National Rail said.
Warrick Dent, the chief operating officer for Northern, said: “I’d like to apologise to all our customers affected by disruption in Manchester. We know how frustrating it is to have your journey delayed, cancelled, or disrupted, and I’m sorry for the impact this has had on people’s day.
“The scale of today’s disruption means customers travelling through Manchester tomorrow morning should also check before they travel, as some knock-on delays may continue.”
