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An electricity supply failure is causing major disruption across much of England's train network this afternoon.

The outage is expected to last until the end of the day and is impacting five rail companies in the North West and the Midlands.

National Rail has warned of hour-long delays to services, while others are being cancelled or rescheduled due to a fault at a communications centre.

The lines affected are: Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, TransPennine Express, and Transport for Wales.

'A failure of the electricity supply at a communications centre means trains across the Greater Manchester area, Midlands and North West of England are being disrupted,' National Rail said.

'As a result, trains will be cancelled, delayed or revised.'

An electricity supply failure is causing major disruption across much of England's train network this afternoon

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.