Those travelling on Britain’s railways this week are being told to brace for more disruption as train drivers stage an overtime ban.
In what is an ongoing dispute over pay, and following on from what has already been several days of pre-planned strike action by RMT rail workers nationwide over the last two weeks, further disruption and delays are to be expected this week as members of the Aslef union at 15 train companies stage a week-long overtime ban.
Aslef members refuse to work overtime from this Monday to Saturday, and then again from 7-12 August.
Northern, Avanti West Coast, and TransPennine Express are just three of the train companies operating services across Greater Manchester and the North West where passengers could expect delays.
Aslef members say they “don’t want to take this action” as they don’t want passengers to be “inconvenienced”, but claim they have been “forced into this place” by the train companies and the UK Government – which are yet to make a pay offer they deem “fair and sensible” since 2019.
ADVERTISEMENT
Passengers told to brace for more rail disruption this week as train drivers stage overtime ban / Credit: Northern
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said the government made an offer to the union for a 4% increase back in April, with a further rise that was dependent on train drivers giving up certain terms and conditions, but this was not seen to be acceptable and no further negotiations have happened since then.
“We have not heard a word from the employers since then,” Mr Whelan stated.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We haven’t had a meeting, or a phone call, a text message, nor an email, for the three months, and we haven’t sat down with the government since January 6 [and] that shows how little the companies and the government care about passengers and staff – they are happy to let this go on and on.”
He continued: “We are determined to get a proper increase for men and women who haven’t had one for four years while inflation has been roaring away.
“Our members, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy now what they could buy back in 2019.”
ADVERTISEMENT
It affects members of the Aslef union at 15 train companies across the UK / Credit: Network Rail
As the week-long overtime ban begins across the UK, a Department for Transport spokesperson said in response to Aslef: “The government has met the rail unions, listened to them and facilitated improved offers on pay and reform.
“The union leaders should put these fair and reasonable offers to their members so this dispute can be resolved.”
Featured Image – Network Rail
News
The most-read Manchester stories of 2025, from Primark Home to Peter Kay’s sass
Daisy Jackson
It’s been another one of those years in Manchester where a lot of weird stuff has happened – big closures no one saw coming, celebs getting in spats online, and major new openings.
Here at The Manc we’ve done our best to bring you the biggest stories from the North West, and you’ve all lapped it up.
As we come to end of 2025 we’ve been looking back at the stories that caught everyone’s attention this year, from beautiful properties to crazy shopping trends.
Did you remember all of these?
10. Olly Murs says no
Olly Murs addressed his abrupt exit from the stage ahead of his Manchester gig
Olly Murs was back on tour this year, selling out arenas (I know, who’d have thunk it?!) across the country.
But poor Olly got off to a bit a rough start and had to walk off stage after just six shows in Glasgow, then going on to cancel his Manchester gig too.
He did look pretty bereft about the whole thing, to be fair to him.
9. Tommy Robinson getting ‘kicked out’ of Hawksmoor
Back in the summer, acclaimed steak house Hawksmoor had to publicly address a quite viral video which showed far-right activist Tommy Robinson being asked to leave one of its restaurants because staff felt ‘uncomfortable’ serving him.
After the video went viral on X, Hawksmoor went on to share a statement in response, saying that guests and staff had complained but that it is ‘not a political organisation, but a group of restaurants’.
Its CEO wrote: “We’re not trying to engage in a public debate. The team has had to deal with a huge amount of fallout from this, some of which is quite concerning. We would like to get back to focussing on looking after those people, and our guests. Thank you to them, and the many of you who have been so supportive.”
Who do you think was in the right here?
8. Drama Call’s tram-inspired trainers
Streetwear brands take their inspiration from a lot of different sources, but we were in no way prepared for Manchester-based label Drama Call’s spring drop.
The popular brand teamed up with adidas to release a shoe inspired by… a tram.
The Superstar II ‘Drama’ featured teal accents that paid homage to the city’s classic tram design – long before the yellow of the modern era, and Mancs went nuts for them.
7. The Victorian Villa
This Manchester house is so fancy, it actually appeared twice on our list of the top stories of 2025 – once when it first went on sale, then when it got re-listed later in the year.
And it’s not hard to see why. This Whalley Range home has some of the most beautiful interiors we’ve ever laid eyes on – we’re talking rich colours, vintage cinema seats, loads of gold, and a show-stopper of a kitchen.
What seemed to keep Mancs reading though was the fact that the house in Whalley Range could go for a whopping £1.75m.
6. The capybara keeper
New jobs simply didn’t come cuter than this in 2025, and when Chester Zoo posted an advert looking for a new keeper for its capybaras, you lot couldn’t get enough.
Responsibilities of the role included caring for the meerkats and capybaras as well as rodents, Xenarthra, Macropods, small carnivores, and the zoo’s free flight bat habitat.
Realistically, only a handful of people locally would have actually been qualified for this job, but that didn’t stop. us all having a nosey at the job description anyway.
ADVERTISEMENT
5. Peter Kay’s sass
Peter Kay is a famously very private man and has rarely even been spotted in public in recent years, plus his social media presence has almost entirely been dedicated to promoting his record-breaking tour.
But the Bolton comedian had plenty to say after a ‘humiliated’ woman was kicked out of his gig at the AO Arena in Manchester.
Addressing the ribbing he gave the lady during the gig, where he compared her to Lisa Riley, Peter Kay’s statement said: “The lady who was escorted out did bear a striking resemblance to Lisa Riley, though I don’t see how that’s an insult.”
It’s no surprise that this was one of the biggest stories in Manchester in 2025, because we simply could not believe our eyes when Almost Famous announced its closure.
ADVERTISEMENT
The burger craze of the mid-2010s may have died down, but this spot had always felt like a Northern Quarter OG with a loyal enough following to stand the test of time.
Alas, it closed its doors very suddenly back in January, shortly followed by its sister smash burger brand Super Awesome Deluxe, with a staggering outcry and a lot of fall-out locally.
Thankfully, a short while later it was rescued by the team behind PINS Social Club.
3. Primark Home arrived
Primark Home is opening this weekend at Trafford Palazzo
Did anyone really doubt that the arrival of a new ENORMOUS Primark store totally dedicated to homeware was going to go a little bonkers?
We practically had people banging down the doors to the massive Trafford Palazzo retailer (the first in Britain) when we were allowed in for a sneak peek before its official launch.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s a pretty impressive space – get a load of it HERE.
2. Big Night of Musicals
This event takes place basically every year and yet the lure of free tickets seems to catch everyone’s attention year-in, year-out.
The Big Night of Musicals sees the world’s biggest musicals all joining together on one stage at the AO Arena for a bumper night of live entertainment.
Tickets are free for National Lottery players and although the first batch are all gone, they usually release some more in the new year… watch this space.
1. Highland cows
The Highland Cow safari in the Peak District
One very adorable story ended up comfortably on top for The Manc audience this year – a lovely little feature on a Peak District farm where you can cuddle and groom Highland cows (sorry, coos).
ADVERTISEMENT
Highland Cows of the Peak Experiences at Whirlow Hall Farm has loads of activities for all ages, from Highland Cow safaris to cow cuddling.
It’s an absolutely adorable experience and we’ll definitely be back next summer for more – read all about it HERE.
Featured image: The Manc Group
News
Manchester has been ranked one of the ‘most influential cities’ in Europe
Danny Jones
As per a development that we’d consider so obvious it’s barely worth writing about (even though we are), Manchester has been ranked one of the most influential cities in Europe.
In other news, water is still very much wet.
While there’s plenty of it here in Greater Manchester, given our standard rainy forecasts, when it comes to anything besides the weather, we deliver in spades.
Let’s be honest: we know it, you do too, and apparently so do plenty of other folks – and there’s some concrete statistics to back it up.
Case in point – First Chanel, now Vogue… (Credit: The Manc Group)
You’ll find all manner of surveys, polls and studies diving into how Manchester ranks across various categories, but knowing we boast nods such as ‘the original industrial city’, the place that helped split the atom and the place that the first modern computer was born, we know all about our global impact.
With that in mind, when we saw that Sixt had recently named us as one of the most influential cities in all of Europe, we couldn’t ignore the well-deserved pat on the back.
That’s right, although you might not associate the car rental company with this sort of stuff, as part of their new exclusive ‘Sixt Ride’ offering (think a posh taxi service), they looked into which cities have the most luxuries, tourist attractions and other cultural bonuses to their name.
Per their recent research, Manchester city centre didn’t just break into the top 100 but found itself among the 30 most influential cities in Europe.
You can see the full rankings table down below.
#
City
Country
*Fortune 500 Companies
Fashion weeks
Film Festivals
International Airports
5-Star Hotels
High End/Luxury Shopping areas
Michelin Restaurants
1
Paris
France
10
6
77
2
122
11
134
2
London
United Kingdom
12
3
241
3
182
5
81
3
Milan
Italy
1
4
52
3
29
5
22
4
Rome
Italy
2
0
97
2
65
4
21
5
Stockholm
Sweden
0
3
14
2
12
2
13
6
Madrid
Spain
5
0
38
1
42
2
29
7
Zurich
Switzerland
6
0
10
1
12
4
18
8
Munich
Germany
5
0
10
1
16
4
17
9
Berlin
Germany
1
1
76
1
40
2
21
10
Hamburg
Germany
1
0
16
2
17
3
16
11
Amsterdam
Netherlands
4
0
24
1
29
1
30
12
Copenhagen
Denmark
1
2
12
1
12
2
20
13
Barcelona
Spain
0
0
45
1
47
1
31
14
Lisbon
Portugal
1
0
38
1
49
1
20
15
Athens
Greece
0
0
41
1
52
2
12
16
Vienna
Austria
1
0
24
1
24
3
14
17
Bucharest
Romania
0
0
22
2
12
2
0
18
Warsaw
Poland
0
0
22
2
17
1
3
19
Glasgow
United Kingdom
0
0
17
2
4
2
2
20
Lyon
France
0
0
9
2
7
0
16
21
Prague
Czechia
0
0
16
1
60
1
2
22
Brussels
Belgium
0
0
18
1
14
1
29
23
Oslo
Norway
0
1
8
1
6
1
11
24
Manchester
United Kingdom
0
0
20
1
7
3
2
25
Budapest
Hungary
0
0
16
1
24
1
7
26
Dublin
Ireland
2
0
16
1
11
0
6
27
Naples
Italy
0
0
34
1
5
0
22
28
Porto
Portugal
0
0
8
1
28
0
10
29
Turin
Italy
1
0
21
1
4
0
10
30
Sofia
Bulgaria
0
0
22
1
14
1
0
31
Helsinki
Finland
0
0
5
1
10
1
5
32
Belgrade
Serbia
0
0
32
1
9
0
1
33
Marseille
France
0
0
5
1
4
0
12
34
Birmingham
United Kingdom
0
0
12
1
4
0
6
35
Minsk
Belarus
0
0
11
1
0
0
0
Read it and weep; we Mancs landed 24th on the leaderboard, just behind Norway’s capital, Oslo, and ever so slightly ahead of Budapest in Hungary.
As you can see, to identify the ‘most influential European cities’, they broke down how the 35 most populous cities on the continent and here UK (barring Russia and Ukraine) and what noteworthy cultural touchstones they possess.
For instance, did you hear that our very own Warehouse Project recently found itself breaking into the top half of the best nightclubs on the entire planet?
Going on to analyse everything from the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city, their connections to film, fashion, fine-dining and more, they found that Paris, London and Milan were the most influential (no surprises there), but we’re glad to be keeping such good company.
After all, in the last couple of years alone, Manchester city centre has welcomed the Metiers D’art fashion show, opened one of the biggest indoor entertainment venues in all of Europe, and still takes eternal credit for giving the world Oasis and, therefore, the Live ’25 reunion. Again, you’re welcome.
What do you make of Sixt’s study, and do you agree with their findings on the whole?
It goes without saying that we’d probably put ourselves higher on the list if anything, but then again, maybe we’re getting too used to being told how brilliant it is to live in this region.
Emily Sergeant -
31st July 2023 
