Railway reopen after overnight overhead line damage in Stockport

Friday 9 Oct 2026

Railway reopen after overnight overhead line damage in Stockport

Region & Route:: North West & Central; | North West & Central: North West

Rail passengers are being urged to check before they travel after overhead lines which power trains were damaged in Stockport overnight.

It happened shortly after midnight near Stockport viaduct and resulted in an empty Northern train being stranded and blocking the line.

Network Rail teams have been working throughout the night to repair the damage to the power lines to allow the train to be removed and the railway to reopen.

The route is now clear with trains starting to run again, but it will take some time to get services back up and running as normal.

Delays and cancellations are expected throughout the morning while the normal timetable recovers.

Ticket acceptance is in place across train operators and also on Bee Network Buses and Metrolink trams with Transport for Greater Manchester.

Customers are being urged to check www.nationalrail.co.uk before they set off on their journeys.

Clare Waller, Network Rail area director for Manchester, said: “I’m really sorry to passengers who’ve not had the service they deserve or expect on the railway this morning after the damage to overhead lines in Stockport overnight.

“Our teams have now fixed the damage to the power cables and the railway lines are reopen, but it will take some time still to get train services back to normal. In the meantime please check National Rail Enquiries or with your train operator for the latest travel information.”

To keep up with the latest updates from Network Rail, you can follow @NetworkRailMAN on X, where the latest updates are being published.

Notes to Editors

Train operator travel information

Avanti West Coast

To keep customers moving, Avanti West Coast tickets can be used at no additional cost between:

Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New St with CrossCountry
Manchester Piccadilly and Crewe with Transport for Wales

In both directions until further notice.

If your train is cancelled, then you can travel via various routes either two hours before or after your booked train with your current ticket. Alternatively, if you abandoned your journey as a result of the disruption, then you can claim a fee free refund from where you bought your ticket.

If you continued with your journey but were delayed by 15 minutes or more, you can claim Delay Repay compensation from the train company you travelled with.

Crosscountry

Crosscountry services to and from Manchester may be diverted around Stockport or start and finish at Macclesfield

Northern

For the latest travel information you can visit: https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/service-updates?tab=network-updates

East Midlands Railway

For the latest information you can visit: https://www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk/timetables-updates/service-disruptions

Transpennine Express

Latest travel information here: https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Chris Halpin
Head of communications, North West route
Network Rail
0330 8540100 (Option 3)
chris.halpin@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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