Stay at home and avoid travel unless “absolutely essential” says TfGM

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is asking people in Greater Manchester to stay at home and avoid travelling unless absolutely essential, as roads and public transport services continue to be impacted by Storm Christoph.

Stephen Rhodes, TfGM’s Customer Director, said: “Please, unless your journey is absolutely essential, stay at home.

“If you must travel then take extra care, allow extra time and plan your journey. If you are driving please take the condition of the roads into account and be mindful of other drivers.

“Let’s work together and not put our emergency services and the NHS – who are already working extremely hard due to the Covid-19 pandemic – under any more pressure.”

Rail services have been particularly affected, as well as bus services and the highways.

Do not travel unless absolutely necessary and take extra care if you have to make an essential journey.

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Bus

For disruption to bus routes, please go to tfgm.com/travel-updates/weather-warning or check with your operator.

Metrolink

Services are currently operating as normal.

For line by line information, please click here or visit @MCRMetrolink on twitter.

Rail

Widespread disruption is expected across the rail network on Thursday 21 January.

Northern is advising customers not to travel on many of its routes in the north west of England due to increasingly poor conditions following torrential rain across the region.

Routes covering north of Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria are affected by this Do Not Travel alert. A number of routes have experienced issues with flooding, and several have seen closures and significant disruption.

Chris Jackson, Regional Director at Northern, said: “We have worked for the last few days, in conjunction with colleagues from across the industry, to keep our services operating. And, where possible we have supported those services with replacement buses when the flooding meant running trains was impossible.

“Unfortunately, we have had to make the difficult to advise our customers that they should not travel before Thursday 12pm across many of our north west routes.  The areas affected are those north of Manchester, Cumbria and Lancashire. Many of our services south of Manchester are still currently planned to run with some exceptions.

“The situation is constantly changing so I urge anyone who needs to make essential journeys over the next few days to allow extra time for travel and to check carefully before setting off.”

Anyone who needs to make essential journeys should to allow extra time for travel and to check carefully before setting off as the situation evolves.

Flood waters are also affected roads across the region meaning the provision of rail replacement transport is also challenging.

Passengers are advised to check with the train operator, social media pages or at National Rail Enquiries for the very latest information before travelling.