Arabic version: كروس كانتري تلغي معظم قطارات المملكة المتحدة بعد انقطاع الكهرباء في برمنغهام

According to BBC News, CrossCountry has cancelled almost all of its UK services after a power cut at its Birmingham control centre left systems used to manage the railway unavailable.

The outage began on Saturday and has affected most CrossCountry routes, including services from Glasgow to Penzance and Leeds to Manchester, until further notice. Major links between Manchester and Birmingham, Leeds and York, Cheltenham and Cardiff, and Glasgow and Edinburgh are also affected. The route between Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport is expected to run a near-normal service.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was concerned by the outage and had asked publicly owned operators to provide extra services where possible. She said Network Rail power teams were on site working to restore power and systems as soon as possible.

CrossCountry said tickets for Sunday would remain valid until Wednesday and that other operators were accepting its tickets. Chiltern Railways added services between Birmingham Moor Street and Oxford, while London North Eastern Railway said it would accept CrossCountry tickets to assist affected customers. National Rail said passengers could also use London Underground services and West Midlands Metro services between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street at no extra cost.

CrossCountry apologised and said it was working with relevant partners. Customers delayed by 30 minutes or more can seek Delay Repay compensation, while those choosing not to travel can claim a refund. Football supporters travelling to fixtures in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle were warned that services could be extremely busy.