Trains all at a stand in the Manchester area... (Thursday afternoon 06AUG2026)

[The Mercian]

The flip side is that it can take a certain scale before redundancy is worth it. Does every individual signalbox have generator backup? Whereas with something of the scale of the ROC you absolutely will put in UPS, generator backup, redundant grid feeds etc.

Agree fully with this, I’d be amazed if this isn’t the de facto standard for all ROC facilities, let’s hope No one decided to skimp on the spec.

It then comes down to maintenance and testing systems on a regular basis . There’s no right answers here, though CIBSE guidance is always a good start point, but it will as ever depend on budgets and what controlling FM/Engineers feel are suitable for the risks presented.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Daft question coming up, I'm planning on going to the Lake District from Leeds via Lancaster tomorrow, because trains and crews are all over the place with this disruption, is it likely to affect my journey at 10am tomorrow or are crews who do the Bentham line trains not affected?

Difficult to say for sure. The 1418 Leeds->Morecambe was held at Lancaster for a short period earlier today. Not sure why. The 1726 Leeds->Morecambe (via Lancaster) is currently running on time.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Would the Metrolink between Deansgate Junction/Navigation Road to Altrincham be affected by the disruption as isn't this section signalled by Network Rail?

It is, but the signalling there is local from Deansgate Jn Box, not the ROC in Ardwick.

 

[Donny85]

Presumably someone didn't think our rail network was critical enough to warrant a suitable back up for situations like this.

 

[LittleAH]

Hello everyone. I hope yous can help.

I’m booked on the 22:12 from Durham to York on TPE. Then the 23:38 from York to Manchester, once again with TPE. I also need to be at Manchester airport in time for a 6am flight.

I’ve noticed that the York-Manchester train has now been cancelled, and with TPE announcing to not travel at all for the rest of the day, what are my options.

Thank You!

I would travel earlier via Doncaster with LNER and go via the hope valley. TPE won’t recover tonight.

 

[AndrewE]

is this https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G89887/2026-08-06/detailed the worst victim? 252 mins late passing Salford Cresc, when it was 1 early at Clifton...

Could people escape at the Crescent and get on by bus or other means?

 

[142 007]

From Liverpool,
The 1743 Avanti to London, full and standing, and the 17.56 Northern to Warrington are the only things moving.
The 18.43 Avanti has just started boarding

 

[AndrewE]

From Liverpool,
The 1743 Avanti to London, full and standing, and the 17.56 Northern to Warrington are the only things moving

at least the Pendolino was 11 coaches...

 

[Fedupnorthern]

Is it likely that the 1930 from London to Preston (Glasgow) will run, given that the incoming was cancelled at Preston mid afternoon? Last direct is 2110. Can I get a taxi if that is cancelled?

 

[sharpener]

Agree fully with this, I’d be amazed if this isn’t the de facto standard for all ROC facilities, let’s hope No one decided to skimp on the spec.

It then comes down to maintenance and testing systems on a regular basis . There’s no right answers here, though CIBSE guidance is always a good start point, but it will as ever depend on budgets and what controlling FM/Engineers feel are suitable for the risks presented.

Presumably someone didn't think our rail network was critical enough to warrant a suitable back up for situations like this.

They did. But I am reminded of this from Henry IV Part 1:

Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?

Google AI goes on to AIsplain that "Hotspur’s witty reply reminds us that anyone can claim to have power or make grand promises, but the real test is whether they can actually deliver results."

Which seem to be the bit that is missing here.




"

 

[AGH]

Don't know how accurate Traksy is but there's an 800 in the passing loop at Eccles and another at the loop outside of Earlestown. Going to be a lot of ECS after this.

 

[JUMOUK]

Having previously worked in Facilities Management, incidents like this massively trigger me. I can regale people with numerous tales of poorly designed power failure systems and processes, poorly maintained UPS and generator systems and power system interlocks that haven’t ever been tested in anger. I’m just thinking of some poor maintenance tech, the FM and his mates at the moment trying to get a stable power supply back on whilst the world and his wife are shouting down the telephone at them.

Having previously dealt with a very similar incident taking weeks to resolve in the past, I feel for all of those on call this week!

on a more speculative note, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were running with some sort of loss of redundancy in their UPS Units, I have heard of lots of failures recently due to high heat + humidity

 

[infobleep]

I am off to Morecambe tomorrow. Will be on 11:46 from London Euston. Will be interesting to see how the journey goes.

 

[Peter749]

is this https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G89887/2026-08-06/detailed the worst victim? 252 mins late passing Salford Cresc, when it was 1 early at Clifton...

Could people escape at the Crescent and get on by bus or other means?

That train is in P1 at Salford Crescent where I think it terminated. Lots of buses from there to Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly.

 

[dantheman1973]

Best bet I can see is either a taxi from York or the 2315 Northern RRB to Leeds, spend an hour there and get the 0220 National Express Coach to Manchester Airport (Arrives 04:20). In theory you should be able to get reimbursed for the coach, although it looks to only cost £9.90.

Cheers mate! This is the route we’ll take. Thank you!!

 

[Pete_uk]

Presumably someone didn't think our rail network was critical enough to warrant a suitable back up for situations like this.

Or even a totally seperate power supply maybe

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

But it affected more than Manchester ROC didn't it? Piccadilly PSB, Crewe and the likes?

Manchester ROC has taken over control of the Independent lines at Crewe, with the closure of the manual boxes in the area.
This may well have affected freight trains in the area, with knock-on to the main lines, particularly the slows.

 

[Peter749]

Don't know how accurate Traksy is but there's an 800 in the passing loop at Eccles and another at the loop outside of Earlestown. Going to be a lot of ECS after this.

1N66 is shown stopped near Water St Jn and pictures on the BBC of it being evacuated - so Traksy is correct in that respect

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G89602/2026-08-06/detailed

 

[The Mercian]

Having previously dealt with a very similar incident taking weeks to resolve in the past, I feel for all of those on call this week!

on a more speculative note, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were running with some sort of loss of redundancy in their UPS Units, I have heard of lots of failures recently due to high heat + humidity

Fortunately in my operational FM career I didn’t have to deal with the 30° plus heat blooms modern FMs and maintenance teams are having to manage (it was bad enough dealing with temps in the mid 20s!).

 

[Mogster]

Having previously worked in Facilities Management, incidents like this massively trigger me. I can regale people with numerous tales of poorly designed power failure systems and processes, poorly maintained UPS and generator systems and power system interlocks that haven’t ever been tested in anger. I’m just thinking of some poor maintenance tech, the FM and his mates at the moment trying to get a stable power supply back on whilst the world and his wife are shouting down the telephone at them.

Work in healthcare. We have generator support for the whole site and fuel for 7 days. We have had instances in the past with the generator not starting when required. There’s a monthly test now, running for 3 hours. When the monthly test was first started we had a lot of issues which we had to log and report. Gradually these have been reduced to the point where there are very few problems now.

You need to test generator backup. If it causes problems then don’t stop testing, fix the issues.

 

[D6130]

Daft question coming up, I'm planning on going to the Lake District from Leeds via Lancaster tomorrow, because trains and crews are all over the place with this disruption, is it likely to affect my journey at 10am tomorrow or are crews who do the Bentham line trains not affected?

The Bentham line is only worked by Skipton crews, so there shouldn't be a problem tomorrow....unless something else happens!

 

[Bantamzen]

The flip side is that it can take a certain scale before redundancy is worth it. Does every individual signalbox have generator backup? Whereas with something of the scale of the ROC you absolutely will put in UPS, generator backup, redundant grid feeds etc.

I'd say at this point, having basically shut down the network over much of the North of England in the run up to the evening peak, that ought to be enough scale. And frankly given that it's been shown to have been such an issue, someone, somewhere should have asked the question "what if the backup fails?"

As I said earlier, someone has a very difficult day coming up tomorrow.

 

[6Gman]

We were caught up in this (but got off lightly thanks to TfW running close to normal into/out of Piccadilly around 1530) but noticed one oddity.

From (at least) 1500 there was a 1Z99 showing on Open Train Times on the Up in the Chelford area.

It was still there when we left Stockport at 1601, and when we passed through the area, but we clearly didn't hit anything!

So does anybody know why it was showing?

 

[Peter749]

And Rochdale is enirely blocked. That service has been sat at (or near) Smithy Bridge for 50 mins.

This has shown as gone into the bay on platform 2. I do wonder when that was last used?

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G89225/2026-08-06/detailed#allox_id=1

A few weeks ago when Miles Platting was closed for laying new track and points and its on again next week

 

[RyanOPlasty]

Is there not a backup location for the Manchester ROC? I seem to remember there was a secondary site for the Birmingham ROC

 

[Tezza1978]

Is it likely that the 1930 from London to Preston (Glasgow) will run, given that the incoming was cancelled at Preston mid afternoon? Last direct is 2110. Can I get a taxi if that is cancelled?

Difficult to say as yet - showing as ontime currently which I doubt will be the case - keep an eye out in Realtimetrains as sometimes at Euston even seemingly cancelled trains can sometimes reappear - this has happened to me once EUS-WBQ during a severe disruption I caught it, and it left only 1/4 full as didnt show on departure board.

The previous train to Preston to the 1930 tonight was cancelled I can see, and the 1930 is always busy as is the first off peak long distance train north. If they are short of staff/crew its often the 2030 that's cancelled and then the 2110 runs (normally a fairly quiet train, particularly on Mon- Weds- - but will be rammed if the 2030 is cancelled)

 

[The Mercian]

Work in healthcare. We have generator support for the whole site and fuel for 7 days. We have had instances in the past with the generator not starting when required. There’s a monthly test now, running for 3 hours. When the monthly test was first started we had a lot of issues which we had to log and report. Gradually these have been reduced to the point where there are very few problems now.

You need to test generator backup. If it causes problems then don’t stop testing, fix the issues.

Couldn’t agree more. Test, test and test again, you find all the flaws, SPOFs etc in your systems and processes.

 

[Ballyheigue]

The Bentham line is only worked by Skipton crews, so there shouldn't be a problem tomorrow....unless something else happens!

That's great as wasn't sure if any Leeds crews worked it like some do on the Carlisle trains.

 

[jfollows]

I had a large computer installation with UPS, I wasn’t responsible for the machine room or for running the system, but I was on site a lot of the time post installation. We had a power cut and the generator kicked in after the batteries kept the systems going, as designed, but the air conditioning was not on the batteries but meant to be powered by the generator. Of course, first time it happened for real, the computers carried on running but the A/C didn’t restart. What to do? said the somewhat panicked facilities manager. “The big red switch” we said. Doesn’t that harm the computers? “No, that’s just a tale to stop people from doing it normally”. We can’t have something like 40 racks at 40kW each running without A/C. The switch was pressed and no harm was done, apart from to user service.
Someone forgot to test this properly, clearly. It happens a lot in IT in my experience - backups running every night without being tested, UPS in place without being tested, that sort of thing.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is it likely that the 1930 from London to Preston (Glasgow) will run, given that the incoming was cancelled at Preston mid afternoon? Last direct is 2110. Can I get a taxi if that is cancelled?

According to Avanti Journey Check, the 1930 is currently still running, but with an additional call at Crewe at 2059 this evening.