Major disruption on railways in northern England after Manchester power failure

Katy Austin
Transport correspondent

I’ve had more details
from Network Rail, which manages the infrastructure, to explain exactly what’s
happened to cause this disruption.

My understanding is that there was a power supply failure in the
Ardwick area of Manchester, not just affecting the railway.

But this affected Network Rail’s Regional Operating Centre, which houses all the controls to safely operate the railway, including signalling.

There was a delay to the back-up supply kicking in.

My understanding is that with signalling down, all affected trains
had to stop.

Now, the aim is to get them all into stations, and then reboot the
railway systems.

The railway is busy, and timetables are incredibly complex. Trains
and staff ending up in the wrong place – especially when lots are affected at
once – can have a big impact on the rest of the day’s plans, even once a
problem is fixed.