Passengers are being advised to check before they travel this August bank holiday as long-term improvements to the railway near Stafford cause short-term changes to normal services.

Network Rail is continuing to improve level crossings between Wrexham and Chester as part of work to provide a safer and more reliable railway for passengers and communities on the north Wales border.

Network Rail has teamed up with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) to help keep farmers and their workers safe at level crossings at harvest time.

Work will shortly begin on a 14-month programme at Stirling station to deliver a £3m investment to upgrade and replace the glass roof and install safe access for future maintenance on the listed building.

As the ‘orange army’ entered its third week of preparing Bath’s railway line for electrification, the team has been working with an ecologist to ensure the bats living in Box Tunnel are not adversely affected by the work.

Network Rail has completed work to replace an ageing bridge over the railway in the Vale of Glamorgan with a larger and improved structure, which will help improve traffic flow.

Phil Hufton, managing director of network operations at Network Rail, said: “At the start of this year we had a number of problems that caused passengers disruption and frustration and we apologise for this.  Since then we have proactively invested over £11m to improve performance for Southern and Thameslink passengers.

Residents are invited to an event to celebrate the completion of Network Rail’s work in Dawlish to repair the damage caused by last year’s storms and make the area more resilient for the future.