Major rail disruption to last well into Friday after Piccadilly power outage
Northern says passengers should not travel until at least 10am on Friday morning
Major disruption on the rail network across Greater Manchester and the North West is now expected to last into Friday.
According to National Rail Enquiries, the issue stems from a power failure at a communications centre, first reported on Thursday afternoon.
Engineers are working to fix the fault, but a number of trains being stuck in the wrong locations means disruption will continue on Friday morning.
What's happening now
Trains are being cancelled, severely delayed or revised, with some services only able to run part of their route.
Northern is advising passengers not to travel at all until 10am on Friday, and says it will not be able to run any service into Manchester Victoria, or between Preston, Bolton, Wigan, Liverpool and Manchester, for the rest of Thursday.
TransPennine Express is also advising against travel.
The disruption affects Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales.
What passengers can do
Passengers can use their tickets at no extra cost on a range of alternative services, including Bee Network buses, Metrolink and Merseyrail.
East Midlands Railway has arranged replacement buses between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly, and between Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport or Sheffield.
Transport for Wales has organised buses between Liverpool Lime Street and Chester.
Anyone with a ticket dated for Thursday who decides not to travel can use it to travel on Friday instead.
Passengers are being urged to check the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner before setting off, and may be entitled to compensation for delays.