Monday 19 Aug 2019
Passengers urged to check before they travel this August bank holiday
- Region & Route:
- North West & Central
With five days to go until the August bank holiday weekend passengers are being advised to check before they travel with planned railway improvement work in the Greater Manchester and Milton Keynes areas.
More than £19m is being invested between Saturday 24 to Monday 26 August to make the railway safe and reliable for passengers and freight in the North West & Central Region.
The two biggest projects, part of Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan, will see track replaced between Adlington and Cheadle Hulme in Cheshire, and between Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard.
Passengers are being advised that some journeys could take longer but that the majority of the West Coast main line, Chiltern line, Midlands and North West routes will be unaffected.
David Golding, interim route managing director, said: “We appreciate there is never a good time to carry out large-scale improvements to the railway. I know that bank holiday engineering work can affect passengers who want to make the most of the long weekend but we plan the work to affect the fewest number of people.
“Thankfully, disruption for passengers travelling between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and the Lake District is minimal. However, we are still urging passengers to check before they travel at www.nationalrail.co.uk as major work on other parts of the network could have a knock-on effect.”
More than 2,700 railway engineers will be working around the clock to improve the railway for passengers in the North West & Central Region over the bank holiday weekend.
Nationally a total of £97m is being invested as part of Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan.
Passengers are advised to check www.nationalrail.co.uk to see if their journey will be affected.
More information can also be found by visiting nationalrail.co.uk/August and following #AugustBHworks on Twitter.
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 - North West & Central Region
07740 782954
NWCmediarelations@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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