Monday 27 Apr 2015
Check before you travel this May Day weekend
- Region & Route:
Passengers are being advised to check before they travel over the May Day bank holiday as Network Rail carries out upgrades to improve the performance and safety of the railway in parts of Yorkshire.
Level crossings will be enhanced to the most modern standards and sections of track will be replaced by Network Rail’s Orange Army to deliver a better service for passengers.
The work has been timed to minimise disruption to passengers, with the numbers who use the railway over a bank holiday often dropping by as much as 30 per cent.
The investment projects that will be worked on over the May Day bank holiday include upgrading four level crossings between Doncaster and York (Balne, Balne Lowgate, Fenwick and Moss) and replacing track at Shaftholme which will see trains diverted via Leeds and Castleford.
Some services will be impacted between Saturday 2 May at 17:25 and Monday 4 May at 06:00 as a result and passengers are urged to check before they travel.
Mark Tarry, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “Our improvement programme this bank holiday is focussed on delivering a better service for passengers. We are acutely conscious that many people want to use the railway over the bank holiday to reunite with their friends and families, which is why the vast majority of the network is running normally over the long weekend.
“We’d like to apologise to any passengers whose plans are affected by our improvement work, but I hope they will understand that this is a quieter time on the railway and we want to minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers.”
Passengers wishing to travel to see the Tour De Yorkshire will not be impacted by the scheduled work over the bank holiday weekend, although those who do wish to see the event are reminded to plan ahead and leave plenty of time to complete their journey as services will be busy.
To plan to your journey in advance and check train times, visit the National Rail enquiries website www.nationalrail.co.uk.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - Toby Higgins
Head of Communications
Network Rail
0330 333 1800
toby.higgins@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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