‘Do not travel’ warning issued at major UK station after cable meltdown
Passengers face a nightmare rush hour at Manchester Piccadilly station after trains ground to a halt.
Thousands of commuters should brace for disruption after damage to the overhead cables at Manchester Piccadilly hit trains this afternoon.
Engineers are on site, but the disruption will continue until the end of the day, National Rail warned.
Trains to and from the station will be cancelled or delayed by up to 60 minutes.
Affected trains from London Euston will call at Stockport instead.
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Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Northern, East Midlands Railway, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales services are among the affected.
Northern told passengers not to travel between Manchester Piccadilly and Crew, Stoke on Trent, Hadfield, Buxton, and Chester as this route will have no rail replacement buses.
Trains are able to run between the station and Manchester Airport, but services will be delayed and cancelled, it said.
Avanti said passengers can use their tickets for today for no extra cost tomorrow instead. And if you had to abandon your journey because of the disruption, you can claim refund, it said.
Passengers should make note of their travel time as they are likely to be entitled to compensation or delay repay if their journey is more than 15 minutes late.
National Rail said: ‘Damage to the overhead electric wires at Manchester Piccadilly means that some lines are blocked. As a result, trains running to / from this station may be cancelled or severely delayed by up to 60 minutes.
‘Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.’
Metro approached Network Rail for a comment.
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