Mass rail service disruption looks set to continue into Friday morning.
Passengers have been stranded across much of the North West of England due to a major power outage in Manchester.
Preston Railway Station has seen services cancelled or severely delayed throughout Thursday (6 August) from lunchtime onwards.
Read more: Preston Bus bring in new early morning and later journeys on five services
Network Rail say the power cut shut down the Manchester Rail Operating Centre, the North West’s main hub for controlling train movements around the network. Around 400 postcodes were affected by the blackout.
Engineers are said to be making ‘good progress fixing the signalling issues’ but warnings have been issued of disruption carrying over throughout Friday morning.
This is due to trains and crews being left out of position due to the cancellations and delays.
Chris Wright, Network Rail’s North West route director, said: “I’m extremely sorry for the disruption today and the very difficult journeys many people have experienced. Our engineers are working tirelessly to restore the signalling systems impacted by the power cut at lunchtime.
“With this work continuing this evening 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.”
Andrew McClements, customer experience and transformation director at TPE, 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 (Friday) 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. To help customers we are relaxing ticket restrictions for the whole day, so anyone with an Advance Purchase ticket will be able to travel at any time during the day.”
Warrick Dent, chief operating officer for Northern, said: “I’d like to apologise to all our customers affected by today’s 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.
“Our teams have been working hard alongside Network Rail and other train operators to keep customers moving and informed throughout. 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.”
It’s the second day in a row of major disruption on the railways after delays and cancellations on Wednesday afternoon after damage to overhead power cables between Preston and Lancaster.
