Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express chaos after worldwide IT issue

Trains passengers are facing travel chaos this morning as "widespread IT issues" are affecting dozens of routes across the country, sparking major travel disruption.

All four of Govia Thameslink Railway’s brands – Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – revealed on social media that they are being affected by the worlwide outage, which is also affecting flights, as well as some TV channels.

They said: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network.

“Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem. We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.

“Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected. We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.”

Train operator TransPennine Express also warned passengers it has been affected

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.”

It comes as Sky News dramatically went off air, with presenter Jacquie Beltrao taking to social media to annouce the issue.

She said: "We’re obviously not on air - we’re trying."

Other news outlets have been hit by technical struggles this morning, with a corrupt Microsoft Windows anti-virus update thought to be responsible for a series of glitches.

Microsoft 365 say they are investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access apps and services.

A spokesperson said on X: “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions. We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”

It comes amid reports of widespread IT outages affecting airlines, broadcasters and banks.

Meanwhile flights have been grounded all over the world due to the IT malfunction, with a spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport confirming: "An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport. This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports. Work is ongoing to resolve this and our teams are on hand to assist where we can. Passengers are thanked for their patience."