Media centre

Monday 11 Mar 2019

Passengers urged to plan their rail journeys ahead this Easter

Region & Route:

National

• More than £100m to be invested in Britain’s rail network this Easter
• Railway open for ‘business as usual’ as majority of the network is unaffected by upgrade work with the quietest engineering programme for many years

Network Rail is urging passengers to plan their journeys ahead this Easter (Friday 19 to Monday 22 April inclusive) as it delivers over a £100m investment across Britain.

A 13,800-strong workforce will work around the clock this Easter to keep the railway open and deliver more reliable infrastructure, improved facilities and services for passengers.

The programme of work is part of Network Rail’s railway upgrade plan – a multi-billion-pound investment in the rail network which will improve passenger journeys in the months and years ahead.

Most of the country’s services are unaffected as this Easter’s engineering programme is the quietest for many years, but some routes will still see significant changes to normal services and so passengers need to plan ahead this Easter.

The major investment projects this Easter include:

• Significant work along the route from London Euston to Glasgow – the West Coast Main Line – sees closures of the line at London Euston, near Preston and Glasgow. There will be no trains running to or from London Euston station from Friday 19 April to Monday 22 April

• Improving the reliability of the line between London Fenchurch Street station and Barking by replacing two bridges and renewing the track means no trains running to or from London Fenchurch Street. Instead services will be diverted to and from London Liverpool Street station from Friday 19 to Monday 22 April and buses replacing trains between Barking and Aldgate East

• Significant electrification work (including installing foundations, masts, overhead line equipment and fencing) between Cardiff Central station and Severn Tunnel junction from Friday 19 to Monday 22 April will see buses replace trains between Bristol/Chepstow and Newport

• Upgrading the overhead wiring system on the Southend Victoria branch line as part of a £46m investment. This will see buses replace train services between Shenfield and Southend Victoria/ Southminster from Friday 19 April to Monday 22 April

Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail said: “This Easter we are strongly advising passengers to plan ahead while we deliver essential upgrades to the rail network to improve their journeys.

“We know that our railway is up to 50% quieter than usual over bank holidays so doing work at this time of year minimises our impact on passengers who, as research shows, understand the need for such activity."

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

ENDS