Home News Passengers reminded to plan their Easter rail getaways

Passengers reminded to plan their Easter rail getaways

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  • Railway open for ‘business as usual’ as majority of the network is unaffected by upgrade work with the quietest engineering programme for many years

Rail passengers preparing for their Easter getaway this weekend are being issued a final reminder to plan their journeys in advance of Network Rail’s engineering work programme.

In just four days’ time 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.

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 and the station will be closed from Friday 19 April to Monday 22 April. This will have a major impact on journeys including alternative routes, longer travel times and busier trains than normal
  • 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.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.

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