Bev Craig announces inquiry into Manchester train outage

The issue caused widespread disruption across Northern rail services, leading to cancellations of trains across Manchester and the North West.

Recently-elected Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig has now announced that an inquiry into the incident has been ‘fast-tracked’.

Ms craig said: “Yesterday’s rail disruption impacted thousands of people and businesses across Greater Manchester – passengers were badly let down and it can’t happen again.

“I’ve spoken with both the rail minister and Network Rail. They are going to fast-track an indepndent inquiry into all aspects of the incident and how it was handled.

(Image: Network Rail)

“I understand that unexpected incidents can happen, but I’ve made clear that – in such events – there needs to be robust plans in place to keep trains running, and a better approach to supporting passengers to get where they need to go.”

Yesterday’s incident was caused by a ‘failure of the electricity supply at a rail communications centre,’ according to Network Rail, which affected rail signalling across the North West.

Many trains were cancelled, with problems lasting until the Friday morning (August 7).

The disruption impacted several train operators, including Northern, Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Merseyrail, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales.