Manchester Piccadilly trains to halt for urgent repairs

The wiring above the railway at Manchester Piccadilly Station was damaged on Thursday morning (April 16) and engineering teams worked through the night to assess and repair the damage.

Network Rail have said that due to the complexity of the problem, repairs will need to be completed in a block starting Saturday night and running until Sunday morning.

An amended timetable will be in place until 11pm on Saturday night (April 18) and, after then, no trains will run out of Manchester Piccadilly – including platforms 13 and 14.

Instead, an amended timetable will be in place at other central Manchester stations and services in and out of Piccadilly will start again at 11am on Sunday morning (April 19).

Passengers have been urged to check with their train operators before travelling, particularly with big sporting events taking place, including the Manchester Marathon and Manchester City vs Arsenal on Sunday. 

Network Rail’s North West route director, Chris Wright, said: “I am sorry to our passengers who have been impacted by the damage to our overhead wires outside Piccadilly.

“The damage was sustained over a large area in a complicated location on the railway. Our engineers have worked tirelessly to fix the issue, and we worked closely with train operators to offer an amended timetable today, which will continue into Saturday.

“We are carrying out a full repair on Saturday night. To do this, we need to close the line into Manchester Piccadilly between 11pm on Saturday and 11am on Sunday. Please, if you are planning to travel into Manchester by rail on Sunday morning, plan your journey in advance and allow extra travel time.”

Simon Turner, Head of Operational Readiness at Avanti West Coast, said: “We’ll be operating a significantly reduced timetable between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston on Saturday 18 April due to the ongoing issues with the overhead electric wires. These services are expected to be extremely busy, and we strongly advise customers to check before they travel.

“We’re continuing to work with Network Rail and industry partners to help customers get to their destinations via alternative routes. We’d like to thank customers for their patience and remind anyone whose journey is delayed by 15 minutes or more to claim Delay Repay compensation.”

For up-to-date travel information and detail on alternative travel please check ww.nationalrail.co.uk.