A power failure is causing major disruption and cancellations of train services across a large swathe of the rail network.

Trains across Greater Manchester, the Midlands and the northwest of England have been cancelled or delayed by up to an hour, National Rail said.

The rail network is expecting disruption 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, East Midlands, Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales.

Rail replacement transport has not been arranged for passengers.

National Rail is urging passengers to check if their journey is affected on its site.

Northern Rail said services are unable to run on multiple lines of route in the northwest of England and has advised customers to not travel.

East Midlands Rail said trains on the Liverpool Lime Street, Nottingham, and Norwich routes are unable to run between Sheffield and Liverpool Lime Street.

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