Rail travellers face lengthy delays over bank holiday

TRAIN passengers travelling on the main rail routes between Scotland and London are among those who will be affected by widespread engineering works planned for the May bank holiday weekend.

Travellers hit by disruption will include thousands from Scotland and legions of Liverpool fans going to Wembley for the FA Cup final against Chelsea on Saturday 5 May.

About nine million passengers are expected to travel by train over the weekend and the rail industry said the “vast majority” would be unaffected by the “improvement” work.

Network Rail and the Association of Train Operating Companies said there would be 17 per cent fewer replacement bus services than there were over the same holiday weekend last year.

The two companies also said that about 45 per cent more trains would run this time than last year.

But nearly every passenger train company will be operating some replacement bus services this time round.

Engineering work on the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh and London will mean trains travelling south on Sunday 6 May will have journey times extended by an hour.

Three lots of engineering work on the West Coast Main Line, operated by Virgin Trains – will affect many more passengers, including the Liverpool fans travelling to the match, which is scheduled to kick off later than usual at 5:15pm.

All but three of Virgin’s Liverpool to London trains have been cancelled that day, with the last return service leaving just after 8pm – meaning fans face being stranded after leaving Wembley.

The west coast disruption will affect passengers travelling on London Midland services as well. Some London Midland trains between London and Crewe/Birmingham New Street will start and finish at Northampton, with buses replacing trains between London and Milton Keynes Central/Northampton.

Virgin Trains is replacing trains with buses on some services between Crewe and Liverpool Lime Street, Carlisle and Glasgow Central/Edinburgh.

First Great Western passengers will have to put up with engineering work between Reading West and Newbury in Berkshire, with some Reading-Newbury services being replaced by buses.

Some services to and from London’s Liverpool Street station will also be affected, with no trains running on Greater Anglia services between Liverpool Street and Shenfield in Essex on bank holiday Monday.

First Hull Trains’ services on the Sunday will start and finish at Peterborough and not run to and from London King’s Cross.

Also on bank holiday Monday, the Gatwick Express will operate a reduced half-hourly service until 4pm.

First TransPennine Express services will be affected by four lots of engineering work.

For much of the weekend, buses will replace trains between Carlisle and Glasgow Central/ Edinburgh and on the Sunday there will be a bus replacement service between Preston and Carlisle.

The Association of Train Operating Companies and Network Rail (NR) said: “The rail industry has cut its use of rail replacement buses by a third over the last three years.