What went wrong at Piccadilly station and why it caused 'severe' travel chaos

Thousands of travellers were impacted amid travel chaos at Piccadilly station on Thursday (April 16). One of the UK's busiest stations, it sees around 75,000 people pass through it to other major destinations every day.

But over 100 services were either cancelled of severely delayed throughout the day after overhead wires became damaged. The incident was first reported at around 11.20am after an Avanti West Coast service from London arrived at the major station.

It's understood that the overhead line became 'tangled' with the train's pantograph above the first class carriage. This then caused the extensive damage affecting swathes of services coming in and out of the major travel hub.

Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter

Damage to overhead lines then affected other services arriving into and departing out of the station throughout the day. Overhead line equipment is the name for the overhead wires and other equipment you can see on electrified railway lines. It carries 25,000 volts of electricity to power electric trains and is a critical part of the railway.

Once repaired, investigations will take place to determine how the incident happened. Network Rail said the majority of the works will be carried out overnight on Thursday and into Friday morning, but some further work will be ongoing until Sunday, with more disruption expected until then.

Passengers at the station were then greeted with arrival and departure boards filled with rows of cancellations, which also urged those travelling to 'listen out for further announcements' and warned of delays and short-notice cancellations.

READ: Day of travel mayhem amid 'major disruption' at Manchester Piccadilly with over 100 services cancelled

Services affected by the issue included Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales to major stations across the UK. Tickets were accepted on various other alternate services where available, with road bus replacements also offered.

During the afternoon Northern Rail also issued a 'do not travel' warning for Manchester Piccadilly. Pictures showed damage to the overhead lines and to the roof of the Avanti service involved.

Queues formed on platforms for late services, as lines also grew outside the station for bus replacement services. Passengers were guided by large numbers of staff on hand to assist them to form queues outside while they waited for a seat on the next available rail replacement service. Others were advised to catch local buses and trams where possible.

All services from Manchester Piccadilly have been cancelled before 7am on Friday. This included early-morning services to Manchester Airport. It was predicted that the majority of services would then resume, but that some may still face delays or cancellations. Travellers have been told to plan ahead and check before travelling that their train service is still operating as scheduled.

Chris Wright, North West route director for Network Rail, said: "We are sorry to passengers for the impact of today's disruption, caused by overhead line damage. The issue is complex but our teams are working hard to repair the railway as soon as possible. We have worked closely with our train operator partners to keep passengers on the move wherever possible, so please check the National Rail Enquiries website for the latest information on train services in the coming days."