Network Rail engineers to deliver £135 million of investment on railway this May

More than 800 projects worth £135 million will take place on the railway across Britain in May over the two Bank Holiday weekends.

Rail passengers travelling to and from Stockport are likely to see disruption due to various works on the West Coast Mainline. Unlike roads, railways are usually quieter during weekends, particularly on key commuter routes into major cities, providing greater opportunity to carry out improvement works while minimising the number of passengers affected by disruption.

On Sunday, 5 May, there will be no trains between Euston and Milton Keynes Central and no services from England to Glasgow on the same day owing to improvement work on the West Coast Main Line at Crewe, Wigan and other locations.

On the late Bank Holiday weekend (25-27 May), major work around both Crewe and Carlisle, to improve drainage, lay new track and new sets of points, will mean an amended – and reduced – services over all three days. Connections on to Scotland will also be affected by track renewals between Carstairs and Lanark on the 25th and 26th May.

Other major works taking place on the network include:

• Work on the new station at Cambridge South means disruption on routes around the city (4-6 May)
• Track renewals around Coventry will see no trains running between Birmingham Airport and Rugby/Leamington Spa (4-6 May)
• Track renewals around Liverpool on Sunday and Monday, 5-6 May.
• A project to refurbish a junction in north London means that services between London Liverpool Street – Enfield Town / Cheshunt will be affected on Sunday 26, Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 May.
• Major work continues on the building of the new station at Beaulieu Park on the Great Eastern main line, a few miles east of Chelsmford, resulting in significant changes to services on this route including to Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich (25-27 May)

Network Rail’s System Operator director, Anit Chandarana, said:

“I’m pleased to say that while we’re continuing our investment in making Britain’s railway more reliable this May, the vast majority of the railway will be open for business as normal. We know people want to travel by train and not replacement bus and we do our best to fit as much work as we can into these closures to minimise the impact on passengers and freight customers.

“The work this month will see new track laid on one of the busiest mixed-use railway in the world – the West Coast Main Line – along with work to replace worn out equipment at junctions at Crewe. We’ve also got more work to build a new station at Cambridge South, which will play a key role in developing the city and its new biomedical campus in a sustainable way. That’s what the railway does best and it’s great to see that continuing this year.”

Rail travel throughout May is also set to be affected by ongoing industrial by the train drivers’ union, ASLEF. The union will stage three one-day strikes across different operators between 7th and 9th May, and an overtime ban across 16 train companies from Monday 6th to Saturday 11th May, which may lead to short-notice cancellations of services.

Customers are urged to check before they travel because there will be changes to services across large parts of the network, with some train operators not running any services on strike days. Special timetables will be available from National Rail Enquiries and journey planners.