Services affected by the disruption include Avanti West Coast, East Midlands, Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales
Train operators have told passengers to completely avoid travel, as a power failure in Manchester causes disruption across a large swathe of the rail network.
Northern rail and TransPennine Express “strongly advised” their customers against commuting, saying there were no replacement buses available for them.
East Midlands Railway said passengers would be unable to travel between Sheffield and Liverpool Lime Street.
Stranded passengers are facing two-hour delays and cancellations across Greater Manchester and the northwest of England.
National Rail expects the disruption to continue until the end of the day as it works to fix an electricity supply failure at one of its communications centres.
Companies affected by the disruption include Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, Northern, TransPennine Express, and Transport for Wales.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander wrote on X: “I am sorry to hear passengers in the North West are affected by a power outage, with trains cancelled or delayed. I am receiving regular updates while Network Rail works to resolve the issue.”
