12/03/2017 North West Tonight

Now on BBC one it's time for the news where you are.

Commuters are being urged to plan ahead as tomorrow's rail strike

is expected to cause delays on roads and public transport

The RMT union is in dispute with Northern Rail and Merseyrail

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

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

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.

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 early yesterday morning.

Local residents are still being advised

Investigators are expected to be on site next week

A man's been arrested on suspicion of affray

after a 48-hour armed stand-off in Cheshire ended safely.

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.

Sport and the Premier League coverage is coming up in a few

moments here on BBC One, in Match of the Day 2.

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.

Now here's Alex Hamilton with the weather.

Well, after a mixture of sunshine and showers today,

we've got more of that on the way for the new working week.

High pressure is building, though, so we're looking at broadly settled

Now, as we have a look at the detail tonight,

still the odd shower around, cloud increasing, but still some

clearer spells in the early hours, lows of around 4 degrees Celsius,

so we should stay broadly frost-free tonight.

Then, as we look towards tomorrow morning,

Variable amounts of cloud throughout the day, but where that cloud

starts to thin and break, we're expecting some brighter spells

And with highs of around 12 degrees Celsius, it will be

I'll leave you with the outlook - reasonably settled for the start

of the new week, a few sunny spells, but a few scattered showers as well.

That is it from me. I do hope you have a peaceful night. Bye-bye.

But from all of us here, have a good night.

Good evening. For many places it was a fairly cloudy day on suspend but

there was sunshine for western areas during the afternoon, and here are

the clear skies at sunset in Northern Ireland. Thanks to weather

watcher Robin for this picture, those clear skies have been making

their way further east ward. Temperatures are dropping away, we

have seen temperatures of freezing in parts of Northern Ireland. More

cloud rolling in during the latter part of the night but towns and

cities down the five and six m the countryside many of us will see the

temperatures a degree or