Northern tells customers 'do not travel' on north west rail network on Wednesday night

Northern is advising customers across the North West of England NOT TO TRAVEL due to increasingly poor conditions following torrential rain across the region.

A number of routes have experienced issues with flooding during the day and several have seen closures and significant disruption.

As the rain continues to fall and flood waters rise flooding is becoming more widespread and colleagues across the rail industry are working hard to deal with issues as they arise.

Despite this hard work, flooding is persisting and it has become increasingly difficult to operate a reliable service.

Flood waters are also affected roads across the region meaning the provision of rail replacement transport is also challenging.

Chris Jackson, Regional Director at Northern, said: “We have worked all day, in conjunction with colleagues from across the industry, to keep our services operating. And, where possible we have supported those services with replacement buses when the flooding meant running trains was impossible.

“Unfortunately the situation is only getting worse and we have had to make the difficult decision to ask our customers not to travel on the Northern rail network in the north west for the rest of today (Wednesday).

“We will continue to work alongside Network Rail throughout the night to prepare for rail services to resume on Thursday morning, but I urge anyone who needs to make essential journeys tomorrow to allow extra time for travel and to check carefully before setting off.”

For up-to-the-minute information about rail services please visit National Rail Enquiries or @northernassist on Twitter.