Rail services through Stafford disrupted as signalling system fails

A major fault with a signalling system led to the closure of rail lines on Friday afternoon, causing disruption to services across England.

Although some lines had reopened and Network Rail was working at the scene in Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent, services were heavily disrupted, warned National Rail.

Network Rail said the issue had been caused by a signalling power failure at 14:45 GMT, adding that teams were “working to restore the failure and recover services as quickly as possible”.

Routes between Stafford and Crewe, Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester Piccadilly and Derby are affected, with cancellations, delays of up to three hours or revisions.

Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway and Northern services are affected.

Avanti West Coast is advising customers do not travel on all routes between London and Manchester, Liverpool, Holyhead and Preston.

East Midlands Railway have replacement road transport in operation and Northern said services may start or terminate at Macclesfield with onward coaches arranged.

CrossCountry tickets can be used on other services.

Hannah Tobin, who wanted to travel to Coventry from Euston at 15:10 GMT described the situation at the London station as “chaos” following the signalling fault in Staffordshire.

There had been nothing going out on the West Coast mainline and hardly any announcements, she said.