Reminder: Majority of Britain’s railway open for business over August bank holiday weekend, but passengers urged to check before travelling

The vast majority of rail services will run as normal over this August bank holiday weekend, however, passengers are being urged to check before travelling as some journeys will be affected by upgrade and engineering work.

Network Rail engineers will be working throughout the late summer bank holiday weekend on more than 440 projects across Britain, delivering an investment of £84.3m to improve train performance and reliability for passengers and freight.

Notable locations affected by this programme of work include:

• London King’s Cross: No long distance services will run to or from the station from the early evening of Saturday 24th August until early morning on Monday 26th August as work takes place as part of the East Coast Digital Programme and maintenance is carried out between Biggleswade and Fletton/Potters Bar. Replacement bus services will be in place between: Potters Bar – Peterborough, St Neots – Bedford, Hertford North – Royston and Stevenage – Hertford North.

• London Euston: A reduced timetable will be in place between Euston and Milton Keynes on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th August as HS2 engineers are continuing work to lengthen a road bridge which spans tracks outside the station.

• Stoke-on-Trent: Services will be disrupted in the Stoke area from Saturday 24th August until Tuesday 27th August as work to renew switches and crossings; the moveable sections of track which guide trains from one track to another and allow them to cross paths. An amended train service will run between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly via Stafford, Crewe and Wilmslow, and bus replacement services will be in operation.

Network Rail’s system operator group director, Anit Chandarana, said:

“We’ve carefully planned our engineering work to keep disruption to a minimum over the bank holiday weekend so people can rely on the railway to get them to events and destinations across the country.

“There’s never a good time to do the work we need to do, but the bank holiday Monday gives us an opportunity when fewer people are travelling to complete major work we couldn’t do in a normal weekend.

“Though the vast majority of the railway will be running as usual, disruption in some areas is unfortunately unavoidable, so I advise those planning to travel over the bank holiday weekend to check their journeys in advance.”