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Thursday 27 Aug 2026

Britain's railway open for business this August Bank Holiday, but please check before you travel

Region & Route:

National

Most of Britain’s railway is open for business throughout the August Bank Holiday weekend, although some routes will be affected by planned improvement work and industrial action impacting East Midlands Railway (EMR) services

The ongoing £1.4bn investment in digital signalling to improve the reliability of the East Coast Main Line means the route will be closed south of Peterborough and Royston towards London from 10pm on Saturday until 8am on Monday (29-31 August). Rail replacement services will be in operation along with a limited LNER service from Newcastle to Bedford for connections to London via Thameslink

Owing to industrial action by the RMT union on EMR*, LNER tickets will not be valid on EMR rail services, and EMR tickets will not be valid on LNER rail or coach replacement services on Sunday 30 August only. Customers should check the LNER and EMR websites for the latest travel advice and information before travelling. Industrial action on EMR continues on Monday when the East Coast Main Line will be open again.

Bank Holidays remain the best time to do the kind of major improvement work that cannot be completed over a normal weekend, so there are still some other major engineering projects taking place this August:

• In Scotland a £13.5m project is underway at Kilmarnock to improve journey times and reliability on the vital rail route between Glasgow, Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.  Work continues until 14 September.
• Work to improve the flood resilience of the railways around Wrexham in North Wales began last week, with new equipment being installed near Gobowen, more than a kilometre of drainage pipe renewed at Bobbinswood, structural repairs and more to Hawarden Bridge along with track renewals, level crossing upgrades, rail stressing and signalling work between Shotwick, Dee Marsh Junction, Weston Rhyn, Ruabon and Burton. As a result, buses are replacing trains between Wrexham and Bidston and Wrexham and Shrewsbury, with normal service resuming on 31 August.
• Engineering work to install part of the new Saltley Viaduct for High Speed 2 will mean changes to rail services between Birmingham New Street, Derby and Nuneaton, with rail replacement buses operating between Birmingham New Street, Water Orton and Coleshill Parkway over all three days of the bank holiday. The viaduct will create the space for HS2 and improve facilities for pedestrians and cyclists in the area.
• An £800,000 upgrade of Brotherton Bridge near Knottingley will protect the structure for years to come, while in the same area, around 1.4km of track will be replaced at Sherburn in Elmet for smoother, more reliable journeys. The package of work will affect some Northern and TransPennine Express (TPE) journeys in the area over the whole of the Bank Holiday, with buses replacing trains between Selby and York/Leeds/Micklefield, and between York and Moorthorpe.
• Work to repair and restore the railway following the derailment near Lewes is on track to be completed over the bank holiday weekend, for a planned reopening on Tuesday 1 September.