'Major' disruption impacting trains from Liverpool Lime Street, Warrington and Manchester - full details
Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales services are impacted.
Commuters are facing “major” disruption this morning, with a points failure at Earlestown leading to closed lines and impacting trains from Liverpool Lime Street.
Northern Rail says the disruption is expected until 9.00am, warning that trains running between Liverpool Lime Street, Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester may be cancelled or revised.
The routes impacted are:
- Northern services between Chester and Leeds, and between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Airport, also between Chester / Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria
- TransPennine Express services between Liverpool Lime Street and Newcastle / Stalybridge
- Transport for Wales services between Chester / Holyhead / Llandudno and Manchester Airport
Northern says the points failure means Manchester Airport to Liverpool Lime Street services can run between Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly only, in both directions. Services will be cancelled between Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street in both directions.
If you are travelling on TransPennine Express services to/from Lea Green and Newton-le-Willows, rail replacement transport has been requested to run between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria via Lea Green and Newton-le-Willows.
Transport for Wales says replacement road transport is currently being sourced for affected customers between Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester Piccadilly. If you are travelling between Chester and Manchester Piccadilly, you can travel via Crewe on alternative Transport for Wales services at no extra cost.
National Rail says Network Rail staff are on site at Earlestown and working on rectifying the issue. East Midlands Railway services between Liverpool and Manchester appear to currently be operating as usual.
You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.
Merseyrail services on the West Kirby. New Brighton, Ellesmere Port and Chester line are also disrupted due to a previous, separate train fault at Hamilton Square.