{"id":416101,"date":"2025-09-11T15:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/416101\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T15:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:21:18","slug":"lightning-strike-sparks-rush-hour-train-delays-across-greater-manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/416101\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning strike sparks ‘rush hour’ train delays across Greater Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

The region has been battered by heavy rain, thunder and lightningCastleton railway station<\/p>\n

A lightning strike has damaged a train signalling system near a station in Rochdale<\/a>, resulting in delays for commuters.<\/p>\n

National Rail said disruption was expected to run into rush-hour on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Northern services between Chester and Leeds; Headbolt Lane\/Rochdale and Blackburn; Wigan<\/a> Wallgate and Todmorden; Clitheroe and Rochdale and between Manchester Victoria and Leeds are all being affected.<\/p>\n

The lightning strike – which came as Greater Manchester suffered heavy rainfall, thunder and lightning on Thursday afternoon<\/a> – was reported in the Castleton area of Rochdale.<\/p>\n

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It’s said to have caused damage to the signalling system, disrupting trains running through Castleton railway station.<\/p>\n

Natiional Rail said on its website: “A lightning strike has occurred in the Castleton area and has caused damage to the signalling system, disrupting trains running through this station.<\/p>\n

Northern(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)<\/p>\n

“Northern services between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale, and TransPennine Express services between Manchester Victoria and Hebden Bridge may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised.<\/p>\n

“Engineers are on site assessing the situation. Whilst they are working to restore the signalling, trains will run at a reduced speed through the affected area.”<\/p>\n

Operator Northern said trains may be revised to end or start at Manchester Victoria, not running between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale or Todmorden.<\/p>\n

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TransPennine Express said trains would not call at Castleton station.<\/p>\n

Buses have been requested to run between Brighouse and Manchester Victoria, calling at Castleton.<\/p>\n

Northern referenced a ‘fault with the signalling system between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale’.<\/p>\n

It said trains would have to run at a reduced speed on the line.<\/p>\n

“Train services running through these stations will be delayed,” added the operator. “Disruption is expected until 4pm.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The region has been battered by heavy rain, thunder and lightningCastleton railway station A lightning strike has damaged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,2768,1170,7857,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-416101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-weather","13":"tag-rochdale","14":"tag-trains","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115186348460696332","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}