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Passengers will be able to continue to move between Manchester and Huddersfield via diversionary routes, as two weekends of essential track work to transform train journeys through Stalybridge starts this September.

Passengers using the Chiltern main line to travel between Birmingham, Oxford and London will soon benefit from smoother, more reliable journeys.

Rail passengers are now benefiting from the overhaul of a key section of the signalling system on a busy stretch of the West Coast main line through Cheshire.

Bank holiday revellers are being urged to plan ahead if travelling by train as a host of huge events across the weekend means the railway will be extra busy.

More than £9.5m is being invested to extend platforms at five railway stations in Cumbria to make way for longer trains.

Both rail passengers and an endangered species are benefiting from work to protect the Chase line in Staffordshire.

• Rail passengers should only travel if ‘absolutely necessary’ on 18 & 20 August
• Strike action will see 20% of the usual number of trains running – some routes will have none
• Those running will start later from 7:30am and finish earlier by 6.30pm
• If you must travel, please check National Rail Enquiries before you set off

Passengers are being warned that no trains will be running to or from Birmingham New Street station this Saturday (13 August) during industrial action by train drivers.