IT failure hits rail passengers and football fans

Merseyrail said disruption has been caused by the worldwide IT failure

A worldwide IT failure is causing problems for rail passengers, patients and football fans.

Passengers on Merseyrail, Avanti West Coast and TransPennine Express trains faced disruption caused by problems with Microsoft.

Staff at Liverpool John Lennon Airport are having to do manual check-in of passengers while Manchester Airport also experienced some delays.

Premier League giants Manchester United has had to postpone selling tickets while Championship side Blackburn Rovers also said it had problems with tickets.

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Merseyrail warned passengers of delays in Liverpool and Merseyside.

A spokesperson said: "Due to a Microsoft outage, we are currently experiencing a technical issue which is affecting our passenger information boards and our ability to print third party tickets at stations.

"Some delays across the network might not be displayed.

"We are working hard to fix this issue."

Train operator TransPennine Express (TPE) warned passengers it had also been affected by the IT outage.

It said: "Please be aware that some TPE stations and systems are having IT issues.

"Please purchase tickets on board if you are unable to do so in stations."

Liverpool and Manchester airport delays

A spokesman for Liverpool John Lennon Airport said: "We are seeing an impact, it is affecting some airlines, but not all, at check-in.

"What they are doing is reverting to manual systems, manual check-ins rather than computerised.

"So people are still checking-in, it is just a bit slower, planes have still been getting away."

A single Dublin to Liverpool flight had been delayed due to an issue in the Republic, the spokesman added.

Staff have had to resort to checking-in passengers manually at Liverpool John Lennon Airport

A spokesman for Manchester Airport also said "check-in and boarding are taking longer than usual for affected airlines".

He added that "some areas of the airport are busy as a result" but most flights are "unaffected".

However some airport shops cannot take card payments.

Manchester United reported problems with its website and had to delay ticket sales for eight home games for 48 hours.

A club spokesperson said: "This is due to a global Microsoft outage which is affecting many servers and systems, including ours."

Manchester United have had to delay ticket sales until Monday for eight home games including Liverpool and Tottenham Hostspur

Blackburn Rovers posted on X: "Due to a global third-party system outage, some online services, including our ticketing platform, are experiencing disruption today.

"This is completely out of the club's control and is a network-wide issue across the world, which we are monitoring closely."

Other EFL clubs among those to also report issues were Bolton Wanderers, Preston and Rotherham.