Media centre

Monday 20 Aug 2018

Passengers reminded to check before they travel ahead of August bank holiday weekend

Region & Route:

National

• More than £84m to be invested this August bank holiday
• Railway open for 'business as usual' as majority of the network is unaffected by upgrade work

Passengers are urged to plan their journeys in advance this weekend, as Network Rail delivers more than 400 projects as part of a £84m investment across the country.

As part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan, a 9,600-strong workforce will work around the clock over the bank holiday weekend to deliver more reliable infrastructure, improved facilities and better services for passengers.

The major investment projects this August include:

• The replacement of a vital junction outside of London Euston station at North Wembley to improve reliability of services. This will see London Euston station closed not only over the bank holiday weekend (25 – 27 August), but also the 18 – 19 August and 1 – 2 September.

• The £200 million investment to transform the track and signalling through the Derby station area will continue over the bank holiday weekend. The 79 days of engineering began on Sunday 22 July and runs until Sunday 7 October. The investment is a key part of the biggest upgrade of the Midland Main Line, which will support better journeys between Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham and London.

• The replacement of track near Coventry to improve the reliability of services through the area. Passengers travelling to Birmingham International Airport are advised to plan their journeys in advance as buses will replace trains between Birmingham International and Rugby.

Some routes will see significant changes to normal services, and so passengers should plan ahead of travelling this August bank holiday weekend.

Andy Thomas, Network Rail’s managing director of England and Wales, said: “This bank holiday weekend, thousands of rail workers across Britain will be delivering essential improvements that will lead to faster, better services and help relieve over-crowding to respond to the huge growth on Britain’s railways. While it will be business as usual on most of the network, we urge all passengers to check before they travel.”

A breakdown of how some journeys will be affected can be found by visiting nationalrail.co.uk/August and following #AugustBHWorks on Twitter.

Notes to Editors

• For more details on some of the major projects taking place over the August bank holiday visit www.networkrail.co.uk/August.