Media centre

Wednesday 12 Feb 2020

£1.2billion investment means no services in or out of London King’s Cross later this month - passengers urged not to travel

Region & Route:

Eastern

Network Rail and train operators on the East Coast Main Line are reminding passengers that no trains will be able to call at London King’s Cross on Saturday, 29 February and Sunday, 1 March as vital improvement work, which will allow more trains to run between London, the North and Scotland, continues.

Over the weekend, Network Rail will work to test signalling equipment at Stevenage station as part of work to build a new platform there. Work will also take place to install new overhead line equipment. To allow this work to take place safely, no services are able to run between Peterborough and London King’s Cross.

All of this work is part of the East Coast Upgrade, which is the biggest investment into the line in a generation. Once complete, it will bring many benefits for the 20 million passengers who travel on the route each year, including faster journeys, more frequent and more reliable services, as well as up to 10,000 extra seats on long distance services per day.

Passengers are urged not to travel to or from London on the East Coast Main Line on these two days as the next stage of work takes place. Passengers are advised to travel on Friday, 28 February or Monday, 2 March instead. These services will be very busy and passengers should book in advance and reserve a seat where possible.

Ed Akers, Principal Programme Sponsor for Network Rail, said: “We know that there have been numerous changes to services to and from London over the past two months and we apologise for any inconvenience which this has caused.

“There’s never a good time carry out upgrade work on this scale. The work taking place on Saturday, 29 February and Sunday, 1 March is absolutely vital to keep this scheme progressing well and we would urge passengers not to travel to and from London on the affected routes on these dates.  

“This work is the final weekend which this project will impact on services until June and I would like to thank passengers for their continued patience whilst we work on this project, which will bring huge benefits to passengers.”

A spokesperson for train operators along the route, said: “This weekend, significant work by Network Rail will mean widespread changes to services on the East Coast Main Line into King’s Cross.

“We would urge passengers to follow the travel advice issued, which is not to travel to or from London on this route and instead, to travel on alternative dates.

“We would like to thank all passengers for their patience and we look forward to them reaping the improvements when this project completes.”

Further periods of planned engineering work will take place later this year, with the next weekend of no services to or from London King’s Cross on Saturday, 20 and Sunday, 21 June 2020. For more information passengers are advised to visit www.eastcoastupgrade.co.uk

ENDS