Nationwide Fault Causes Delays Across Rail Network

A "nationwide fault" has caused major disruption across at least 10 lines of the UK's rail network, National Rail says.

National Rail blamed the issue on the radio system used between train drivers and signalers.

The issue has now been fixed, but residual delays may continue while the timetable is restored.

Services in and out of England's major transport hubs, including Manchester Piccadilly, London Paddington and Southampton Central, were affected.

Great Northern, Northern, ScotRail, Southeastern, Southern, South Western Railway, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line were all impacted.

Travel expert Simon Calder told BBC Radio 5Live that Friday morning had been "a miserable rush hour for a lot of people".

National Rail said the issue appears to be a fault with the onboard GSMR radio system, which is used to communicate in case of emergencies.

The BBC understands the cause of the fault has been located and has been fixed.

To ease disruption prior to this, a back-up system was being used instead.

Network Rail said the issue was mainly affecting trains at the start or end of the day, which a spokesperson said was "causing a few minutes of delay at the start of the day".

But "once up-and-running the system is working normally and the impact on passengers is minimal," it added.

Even though the problem has now been fixed, National Rail said there may be some residual disruption while timetables are restored.