London Northwestern Railway is reminding passengers planning to travel over the Easter bank holiday that London Euston station will be closed from Good Friday, 15th April to Easter Monday, 18th April, with train services starting and finishing at Milton Keynes instead.
The closure of London Euston Station to main line train services is to allow essential railway improvements to be carried out.
Network Rail are investing £22m to improve future journeys for passengers and freight on the West Coast main line and key routes in the Midlands and North West.
Work taking place during the closure includes:
- major track upgrades at Watford;
- work to build Britain's new zero-carbon railway HS2;
- replacing 1 km of track drainage at Beechwood Tunnel between Birmingham International and Coventry;
- bridge renewal works at Coventry South Junction;
- HS2 enabling works at Hampton-in-Arden;
- signalling and track improvements on lines around Crewe station;
- changes to trains between Liverpool and Manchester due to track maintenance around Liverpool South Parkway.
Manchester City and Liverpool football fans are being advised against travelling by rail to and from the FA Cup semi-final on Easter Saturday because of the closure.
Dave Penney, Network Rail passenger director for the North West and Central region, said:
“There is never an ideal time to shut the railway and we have to carefully balance the best time to do this essential work with the needs of our passengers. Long bank holiday weekends continue to give our engineers the time they need to close the railway for complex jobs like track replacements and bridge overhauls while disrupting the fewest number of people.
“Our advice this Easter is to travel either side of the bank holiday on Thursday 14 and Tuesday 19 April and to plan ahead by checking National Rail Enquiries to see how your journey could be impacted by our essential £22m upgrades to improve the railway for the future.”
Passengers needing to travel on the affected days could have longer journeys, there will be fewer seats, and they may need to use rail-replacement buses. To plan journeys and for the latest travel information visit: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/wcml
I wonder if Network Rail’s policy of always doing major engineering work during public holidays is any longer appropriate. The railway now seems to be attracting more leisure passengers, while business travel has been decreasing due to more working from home and video conferencing. The government is urging leisure travellers to go by train rather than use a car so as “to save the planet”. But public holiday extended weekends are just when these travellers want to travel. It’s all very well Network Rail advising these passengers that they should plan to travel on the Thursday and Tuesday for this Easter weekend, but not everyone can take these days as holidays. Maybe a rethink is necessary?