12/03/2017 North West Tonight

Commuters are being urged to plan ahead for their journey to work

tomorrow as a rail strike is expected to cause

delays on roads and public transport around the region.

The RMT union is in dispute with Northern Rail and Merseyrail

over plans to introduce more driver-only-operated trains.

Motorists have been warned the industrial action could lead

to disruption as more people take to the roads.

As rail workers take part in a 24-hour walkout tomorrow,

the impact is expected to be felt far beyond the region's railways.

Transport for Greater Manchester is among those warning that

Roads and motorways are expected to be busier than normal,

with more pressure on tram and bus services around the region too.

The strike by members of the RMT union centres

It wants Northern Rail and Merseyrail to give more

assurances that they won't transfer the task of opening and closing

train doors to drivers, and disputes the train operators'

promise that it would not put safety at risk.

Northern want to have 50% of services by 2020 operating

what they call driver-controlled operation - that's the operation

of a train without a guard - and similar on Merseyrail,

with the introduction of new services and, again,

they want to see services operated without a safety-critical guard

on board, and that's unacceptable to us.

Northern Rail - the biggest train operator in the region -

says only 40% of services are likely to operate tomorrow.

It says it will provide around 300 rail replacement bus services

And Northern Rail tickets will also be accepted

What we've had to do is focus our timetable about moving

people where we have conductors available, or managers

who are conducted trained, available to operate.

We're looking at our core flows, which are between cities

We're not able to service every area.

We have put bus replacements on to supplement that

and I would encourage people to visit the website.

Merseyrail hopes to run trains every half hour

The train service that we plan to operate is very much dependent

on resources being available on the day.

We would urge our customers to check our website -

Merseyrail.org - and also follow us live on Twitter @Merseyrail,

where further details will be available, should there be any

With many rail passengers expected to use the roads instead,

everyone is being urged to leave extra time for their journeys.

Naomi Cornwell, BBC North West Tonight.

An airline which has been operating flights between Blackpool

and the Isle of Man has gone into liquidation.

Citywing said the decision was taken after a company operating

flights on its behalf, Van Air, lost permission to fly

after an incident last month at Ronaldsway Airport.

All of Citywing's flights have now been cancelled.

More than ?275,000 has been raised for the children of a couple

who died of cancer within days of each other in Wirral.

This photo of Mike and Julie Bennet holding hands during their last

moments together was seen by millions of people online,

after it was shared by their family following their deaths last month.

The money raised means their three children can now continue

Merseyside fire crews remain at the scene of a huge blaze

at a scrap metal recycling plant on the waterfront in Sefton.

As many as 40 firefighters have been trying to put out the flames today

at Alexandra Dock in Bootle, after the fire broke out

Local residents are still being advised to keep

Investigators are expected to be on site next week

A man's been arrested on suspicion of affray after a 48-hour armed

Officers had surrounded a house on Kingsdown Close in Weston

on Thursday lunchtime after a man with a crossbow refused to leave.

A 56-year-old is being questioned by detectives.

In the Premier League's only game today, Burnley opened the score

against Liverpool at Anfield, with this goal from Ashley Barnes.

But the Reds fought back to finish 2-1 up.

In Super League, Widnes failed to score at home against the early

season league leaders, Castleford this afternoon,

Meanwhile, a last-gasp conversion foiled a Salford fightback

and earned Wakefield back-to-back Super League wins at Belle Vue.

Thousands of people lined the streets for the annual

St Patrick's Day parade in Manchester City

The hour-long parade finished at Albert Square,

where there's also been live music and Irish markets as part

Now here's Alex Hamilton with the weather..

Well, we've had a rather mixed bag across the North West

On one hand, beautiful blue skies and bright sunshine.

On the other hand, rather cloudy, drizzly picture at times.

If we have a look at the charts, the front that were responsible

If we have a look at the charts, the fronts that were responsible

for that are moving out of the way and high pressure is building

for tomorrow and the first part of the new working week.

So we are expecting slightly more settled conditions.

As we go through the course of tonight, still few showers

Clear spells for a time overnight as well.

We should mostly stay frost-free, though.

And as we go towards tomorrow morning, that cloud starts

A few showers first thing, but then, over the course of the day,

as the cloud starts to thin and break, some brighter spells

as well and a little bit of sunshine here and there.

Highs of around 12 Celsius, so feeling very pleasant

where we do see some of that springtime sunshine.

Quite settled for the start of the week,

Hello, the weather was hit-and-miss today across the UK, bit of

sunshine, a few spots of rain, the skies are clearing now, particularly

in western area, and unlike the last few nights, this coming night, it is

going to turn chilly, there is a touch of frost on the way, these are

clouds from today. Some of it rain bearing, this gap in the weather,

that is going to be over the UK, during the course of the night so

hence the temperatures will dip away. So by the early hours of

Monday morning it is clear, most of England