With engineering works over the Easter Holiday season now behind us, Network Rail is turning its attention to and preparing for the next round of engineering works over the two Bank holiday weekends in May.

Costing £133m, over 630 projects are scheduled to be undertaken during the first and last three-day weekends, Saturday 3 to Monday 5 and Saturday 24 to Monday 26 of May.

Most of these projects are relatively small and much of the UKs rail network will remain unaffected by these works due to be carried out, with the bigger projects being undertaken on commuter routes in and around North West and South East London and around Cambridge.

Saturday 3 to Monday 5 May

Saturday 3 to Sunday 4 May: London Victoria’s re-signalling program will continue. No Southeastern services will be able to run into London Victoria, with trains being diverted to London Charing Cross, London Cannon Street and London Blackfriars. Civil engineering works will be taking place near Battersea Park, which will affect Southern and Gatwick Express services, with trains running to an amended timetable.

Saturday 3 to Monday 5 May: The re-signalling project around Cambridge will also be continuing with more new signals being erected between Cambridge and Audley End. Once complete the second phase of this project can begin enabling Cambridge South station to open in 2026. Buses will replace trains between Cambridge and Audley End with Stanstead Express Cross Country services being replaced by buses from Cambridge direct to Stanstead Airport.

Sunday 4 to Monday 5 May: Once again, there will be no trains out of London Euston to Milton Keynes Central due to track and drainage replacement, and embankment repairs.

Saturday 24 to Monday 26 May

Saturday 24 to Sunday 25 May: Across the last May Bank Holiday weekend, overhead power lines will be replaced on the Midland Main Line between London St Pancras International and Bedford. These works will enable better compatibility with EMR’s new bi-mode Aurora trains. Over the duration of Saturday 24 to Sunday 25 May, no EMR services will run from London St Pancras International to Bedford, and Thameslink services will shuttle between Harpenden and St Albans.

Saturday 24 to Friday 30 May: More disruption will also be noted on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between Nuneaton and Stafford during the last week in May coinciding with the next half term holiday. Earth and civil engineering works for HS2 taking place close to the WCML will mean a reduced timetable will be in operation on Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and West Midlands Railway services with some replacement buses also running.

“This May, thousands of workers will be out in force as we continue to invest in making Britain’s railway more reliable, with £133m worth of essential upgrades taking place across the two Bank Holiday weekends.

While the vast majority of the network will remain open for business as usual, we’re encouraging passengers planning to use the railway to check their journeys in advance.

When we close parts of the railway, we work hard to maximise that time, with over 630 vital pieces of work being carried out, and keep disruption to a minimum for passengers and freight customers.”

Helen Hamlin, Network Rail’s director of system operations