Network Rail is advising passengers travelling over the bank holiday weekend (7th to 10th of April) to check their travel plans ahead of making their journey due to the delivery of an £88m programme of engineering work.
Thousands of rail workers will be carrying out the programme of work at an array of locations which could lead to disruption on some routes however, the majority of the network (over 95%) will be operating as usual. Passengers travelling over the bank holiday weekend should visit National Rail Enquiries or their train operator's website in order to clarify the status of their journey before leaving.
Between Oxford and Didcot Parkway will see that the line remains closed right through the bank holiday weekend due to ongoing emergency repairs to Nuneham viaduct. Chiltern Railways is advising passengers to only travel if it is essential to do so as services will be extremely busy because due to the disruption. CrossCountry trains travelling through the midlands will also be impacted by the line closure and will be unable to run south of Oxford.
CrossCountry passengers who are travelling to the south coast are advised to change services at Birmingham New Street and continue their journey via Milton Keynes where they will be able to transfer to a rail replacement shuttle bus service to Bedford in order to make onward travel on the Midland Main Line into London St Pancras and meeting their connections in order to arrive at their final destination.
Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said: “Our Easter engineering programme has been carefully planned so the majority of the rail network will remain open for business. However, some routes will be affected by this work, so please remember to check before you travel.
“Colleagues from Network Rail and our rail partners will be working hard to deliver £88 million worth of investment during the course of the weekend. These vital projects will upgrade the railway so that we can provide a better and more reliable service for our passengers and freight users in the future.”
Over 12,000 metres of brand new rail alongside 33,000 tonnes of ballast will be laid over the bank holiday weekend as well as an array of other large-scale projects which will bring improvement in both reliability and performance for the rail network, and are as follows:
Various projects including track renewals, bridgework and maintenance work will take place between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central from Friday the 7th to and including Monday the 10th of April:
- These projects will mean that no services will operate between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central throughout the bank holiday weekend.
- Bus services will operate from Milton Keynes Central and Bedford which will connect Govia Thameslink Railway and East Midlands Railway services both to and from London.
- London Northwestern Railway will also be running bus services which will serve stations south of Milton Keynes in order to connect with Govia Thameslink Railway services at Potters Bar.
- Caledonian Sleeper services will start from London King's Cross.
Track upgrades taking place from Saturday the 8th to Tuesday the 11th of April will see the West Coast main line closed between Lancaster and Carlisle:
- Avanti West Coast services will terminate at Lancaster both to and from the south.
- Replacement bus services will operate between Lancaster and Carlisle.
Renewal of switches and crossings at Streatham North Junction:
- Platforms 9 to 19 at London Victoria will not be in service throughout the bank holiday weekend.
- Services will start and end at London Bridge.
- London Victoria to Dorking services will be diverted and will start/terminate at London Bridge via Peckham Rye.
Maintenance work and track renewals at Charing Cross taking place on Saturday the 8th & Sunday the 9th of April:
- Trains will not operate to or from via Waterloo East to Charing Cross.
- Southeastern services will start and end from Cannon Street or London Victoria.
- Bus replacement services will operate between Lewisham and Dartford via Sidcup.
Essential embankment improvements and track renewals in Kent between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings from Friday the 7th to Saturday the 15th of April:
- Between these dates, buses will replace Southeastern train services between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings.
Substantial work to improve reliability and resilience at Carstairs:
- There will be no route through Carstairs Junction to and from Edinburgh Waverley or Glasgow Central via the West Coast main line for the entire bank holiday weekend.
Points conversion work for HS2:
- Services to and from Crewe will be severely impacted from Saturday the 8th to and including Monday the 10th of April.
To find out how Easter travel will be impacted by the programme of work taking place over the bank holiday weekend please visit National Rail Enquiries or follow #EasterRailWorks on Twitter.
This “don’t travel over Easter unless you really have to” message seems to me to be an unfortunate one for a railway that is increasingly dependent on leisure, rather than business, travel for its custom. Network Rail continue to insist that it is less disruptive to close large parts of the network over public holidays, just when most people want to travel, but with business & commuter travel not recovering to its pre-Covid level is this really the best policy?