Emergency repairs are underway on the West Coast Main Line after signalling cables were deliberately cut near Wigan, causing widespread disruption to train services across the North West, Scotland and London Euston.

Network Rail engineers discovered that cables carrying vital information for the safe running of trains had been damaged in several locations along the track at Bamfurlong. The incident is being treated as vandalism and is under investigation by British Transport Police, with Network Rail assisting efforts to identify those responsible.

Teams of engineers are working around the clock to repair and test the cables. However, given the scale of the damage and the complexity of the repairs, disruption is expected to continue into Thursday 21 August.

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Phil James, North West route director for Network Rail, said: "This is an appalling act of criminal vandalism and I am sorry for the disruption that passengers have faced today. Our teams are hard at work making repairs which are very complex due to the nature of this vandalism. While this work carries on, train journeys across the North West and on the West Coast Mainline will continue to be disrupted. We are working closely with the train operators to provide what service while the necessary and complicated repair continues."

Chris Jackson, Managing Director at TransPennine Express, added: "It's really disappointing to, once again, see so many of our customers’ journeys impacted by attempted cable theft. As an industry we have worked hard to tackle this issue and will continue to work together to support British Transport Police in any subsequent investigations. I’d like to thank our customers for their ongoing patience as we do all we can to keep them on the move, and call on anyone planning to travel to check carefully for any changes to their journeys."