Power failures sparked travel chaos across northwest England last night as millions of Britons faced major disruption on the railways. A 90-second power outage struck an area covering Network Rail's Manchester Rail Operating Centre just before 2pm yesterday. "We've got to really understand what's gone wrong here, because clearly something has," said Chris Wright, Route Director NW at Network Rail. Sarah Nelson, who was unable to get to work in Manchester, told the BBC she faced a "nightmare" five-hour round trip just to get back home to Blackpool. Ms Craig said she would be asking Network Rail and the railways for a probe into the cause of the chaos - and their response.