POWER FAILURE AT MANCHESTER RAIL CENTRE DISRUPTS SERVICES ACROSS NORTH

A power failure at Network Rail's Manchester Rail Operating Centre caused widespread disruption across the rail network in northern England on Thursday. A 90-second outage occurred just before 14:00 BST, affecting signalling systems across the region. At least eight rail operators reported delays and cancellations, including Northern, TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway and Transport for Wales. Network Rail confirmed that major disruption was expected to continue until the end of Friday.

The outage was part of a wider power supply failure in the Ardwick area that affected around 5,000 customers, according to SP Electricity NW. However, the BBC understands that a delay to back-up systems activating at the rail centre exacerbated the problem, causing trains to stop whilst signalling was unavailable. Chris Wright, Route Director NW at Network Rail, stated: "We've got to really understand what's gone wrong here, because clearly something has and we've got to make sure we investigate that thoroughly to understand why things haven't restored as we would have expected." Network Rail said services would remain disrupted because many trains and crews were not in their normal positions following the incident.

The Manchester Rail Operating Centre, opened in July 2014, houses all controls for operating the railway across an area spanning from Crewe in the south to Carlisle in the north. Network Rail advised passengers to check online for updates before travelling on Friday. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander expressed regret over the disruption. The operating centre is one of 12 facilities designed to manage the British rail network.