Media centre

Monday 5 Mar 2012

FEWER BUSES THIS EASTER AS IMPROVEMENT WORKS KEEPS PASSENGERS ON THE RAILS

Region & Route:

National

The vast majority of people travelling by train this Easter bank holiday should experience no disruption because of planned improvements to the rail network.

Joint industry figures from the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and Network Rail show that there will be fewer replacement buses than last year.

The number of replacement buses has dropped by over a third compared with last Easter – 34% fewer than 2011.

On routes that will be affected by vital improvement work, train companies will make passengers aware of any service disruption. Posters, leaflets, station announcements and Twitter alerts as well as information on nationalrail.co.uk will help people to plan their journey.

Network Rail engineers will be working round the clock to lay new track, improve stations and repair bridges to help deliver a better railway for passengers. In some instances improvement work has been brought forward, as Network Rail has pledged that there will be no disruptive work planned on mainline rail routes over a three month period this summer including the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail's managing director, network operations, said: "Passengers will see fewer buses and a better service this Easter as our vital improvement work uses new techniques and equipment that reduces the impact on train services. This will be the model for the years ahead as we invest heavily to build a bigger, better railway and support Britain’s economic growth."

Michael Roberts, chief executive of ATOC, said: "A significant amount of time and effort goes into making sure that disruption for passengers is kept to an absolute minimum on the small number of routes affected by improvement works."