Prepare for Bank Holiday travel chaos AGAIN: Passengers face rail HELL with 550 routes closed for upgrades, fewer trains to Gatwick and Stansted airports and a two-day strike by militant union members
- £70million worth of track and signal upgrades mean 550 routes will be closed over three-day weekend,
- Trains from North West will again stop at Milton Keynes Central rather than running into London Euston
- There are also no Southern trains into London Victoria on Sunday and Monday due to signalling upgrades
- In addition there will be a reduced number of trains through Gatwick Airport due to station building work
Travellers face another Bank Holiday weekend of travel chaos as rail engineering works and strikes shut vast swathes of the network.
More than £70million worth of track and signal upgrades mean 550 routes will be closed over the three-day weekend, starting on Saturday.
Some of the routes were also shut over the recent Easter Bank Holiday weekend, raising questions about why the upgrades weren’t finished then.
Trains on the West Coast Mainline from the North West and West Midlands will again stop at Milton Keynes Central rather than running into London Euston due to the station being shut, meaning other routes into the capital could become overwhelmed.
There will also be no Southern trains into London Victoria on Sunday and Monday due to signalling upgrades, causing problems for travellers to and from Gatwick Airport and the south coast.
London Euston station, pictured when it was shut during the Easter weekend on Good Friday, will be completely closed again
Passengers queue to check in for Eurostar trains at London St Pancras on Thursday, April 14 – the day before Good Friday
Traffic builds up on the western section of the M25 motorway by junction 13 in Surrey on April 14, the day before Good Friday
They will have to go via London Bridge instead, making these services much busier. There will also be a reduced number of trains through Gatwick Airport due to station building work.
Roof renewal works at London Liverpool Street mean services to and from Essex will be cancelled and will run from Fenchurch Street instead.
Where do rail passengers face chaos this weekend?
MAJOR DISRUPTIONS
- No Avanti West Coast or London Northwestern Railway trains between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central all weekend
- No London Overground trains between London Euston and Watford Junction all weekend
- No Gatwick Express trains between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport all weekend
- No Southern trains between London Victoria and East Croydon
- No Stansted Express trains between Waltham Cross and Stansted Airport
OTHER DISRUPTIONS
- No c2c trains between Basildon and Shoeburyness or between Barking and Liverpool Street on Sunday
- No CrossCountry, LNER or ScotRail trains between Edinburgh and Motherwell all weekend
- No CrossCountry trains between Birmingham New Street and Coleshill Parkway all weekend
- No East Midlands Railway trains between Sheffield, Derby and Leicester on Sunday morning
- No Grand Central trains between Sunderland and Hartlepool on Saturday and Sunday
- No Great Northern trains between Finsbury Park and Moorgate all weekend
- No Great Northern trains between Ely and Kings Lynn on Saturday and Sunday
- No Greater Anglia trains between Stansted Airport and Waltham Cross all weekend
- No Northern trains between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge all weekend
- No Northern trains between Newcastle and Hartlepool on Saturday and Sunday
- No South Western Railway trains between Ascot and Reading on Sunday
- TransPennine Express: Strike action on Saturday and Sunday
Engineering works in the North East, Cheshire, Manchester and Cumbria will also see some Northern rail services replaced with buses.
Buses will replace trains between Newcastle, Sunderland and Hartlepool, Manchester Piccadilly, Stockport, Macclesfield and Stoke-on-Trent and Carlisle and Maryport.
There will also be disruption for passengers travelling to Stansted Airport from the capital and between London and Cambridge due to track upgrades near Bishops Stortford.
To make matter worse, a 48-hour strike ordered by the militant RMT union means TransPennine Express trains across the north of England will be severely disrupted on Saturday and Sunday.
Dave Penney, Network Rail’s passenger director for the North West and Central region, warned rail passengers to avoid travelling over the three day weekend.
He said: ‘We made great progress on major railway improvements over Easter and I’d like to thank passengers for their continued patience while we carry out more must-do work between 30 April and 2 May.
‘We know there is never an ideal time to shut the railway but bank holidays continue to be the least disruptive time for us to carry out this essential maintenance.
‘With Euston closed our advice is once again to travel either side of the bank holiday on Friday 29 April and Tuesday 3 May where possible.’
There could also be disruption on the roads with millions expected to jump behind the wheel for the three-day weekend.
Around half of Britain’s 33million motorists are expected to take to the roads, with the RAC predicting that Monday will be the busiest day.
Stretches of the M6, M25, M3, M20 and A303 around Stonehenge could become congested.
Yesterday it emerged P&O Ferries services are unlikely to get underway between Dover and Calais until next week, meaning roads leading to cross-Channel services could become gridlocked again.
P&O cross-Channel services remain suspended following its sacking of 800 seafarers last month, with its ships yet to be given the green light to sail by the regulator.
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