{"id":397185,"date":"2026-03-31T18:57:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=191297"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:57:32","slug":"britains-rail-network-open-for-business-this-easter-but-passengers-asked-to-check-before-they-travel-on-some-key-routes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=397185","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s rail network open for business this Easter \u2013 but passengers asked to check before they travel on some key routes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/railuk.com\/travel\/britains-rail-network-open-for-business-this-easter-but-passengers-asked-to-check-before-they-travel-on-some-key-routes\/\" title=\"Britain\u2019s rail network open for business this Easter \u2013 but passengers asked to check before they travel on some key routes\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"485\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/31095654\/Switches-and-crossings-general-picture_cropped-1-485x360.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear:both;max-width: 100%;\" link_thumbnail=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/31095654\/Switches-and-crossings-general-picture_cropped-1-485x360.jpg 485w, https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/31095654\/Switches-and-crossings-general-picture_cropped-1-80x60.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;vast&nbsp;majority of&nbsp;Britain\u2019s&nbsp;rail network will be open for passengers travelling over the Easter bank holiday&nbsp;weekend, helping&nbsp;them&nbsp;make the most of&nbsp;their&nbsp;spring break.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to&nbsp;our&nbsp;carefully-planned \u00a375.5m&nbsp; programme of investment&nbsp;this Easter,&nbsp;aimed at&nbsp;improving performance for both passengers and freight services, we are ensuring most services run as normal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This Easter\u2019s&nbsp;biggest&nbsp;upgrade is&nbsp;part of&nbsp;a&nbsp;\u00a3400m&nbsp;project&nbsp;to boost&nbsp;the reliability of&nbsp;the West Coast Main Line&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Europe\u2019s busiest mixed-use railway.&nbsp;Tackling areas&nbsp;that are most likely to cause delays to&nbsp;passengers, on&nbsp;the busiest section of the railway, the work&nbsp;this April&nbsp;includes:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a38.4m of new track to be laid at Willesden, including the renewal of switches and crossings (moveable sections of track that guide trains from one track to another) and \u00a38m on new overhead power equipment around Wembley;\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>A bridge in\u00a0Ledburn, just south of Leighton Buzzard will see a \u00a36.6m investment in waterproofing the bridge to prevent future damage to the structure. Engineers will also complete over \u00a37m of signalling upgrades nearby, which will help to reduce failures and improve the reliability of journeys.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Harrow &amp; Wealdstone station will see a \u00a35.8m investment in repairs to the station canopies and platform upgrades.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a result of the investment work,&nbsp;here will be no trains between London Euston and Milton Keynes&nbsp;between Good Friday and Wednesday&nbsp;8&nbsp;April, with trains returning on Thursday&nbsp;9&nbsp;April.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Passengers travelling to or from Euston should check their journeys as there will be diversions and replacement buses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, thousands of&nbsp;our&nbsp;engineers will be delivering more than 270 essential&nbsp;upgrade&nbsp;projects across Britain to&nbsp;maintain&nbsp;and modernise the railway, delivering a more resilient and reliable railway for the millions of passengers who use the network day in and day out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A video&nbsp;guide&nbsp;for passengers is available&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalrail.co.uk\/travel-information\/easter-bank-holiday\/\">here.<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jake Kelly, Network Rail regional director for North West and Central,&nbsp;said:&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8220;We know how important&nbsp;Bank&nbsp;Holidays are &#8211; particularly&nbsp;at&nbsp;Easter, when families and friends come together&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;and&nbsp;that\u2019s why&nbsp;we work hard to keep as much of the network open as possible while carrying out these vital upgrades.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However,&nbsp;Bank&nbsp;Holidays are&nbsp;also&nbsp;among the least&nbsp;busy times on the railway, and the four-day&nbsp;period at Easter&nbsp;gives us a valuable opportunity to complete projects that simply can&#8217;t be delivered during a normal weekend. This&nbsp;ensures&nbsp;we maximise the time our teams are out working on the&nbsp;tracks.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo&nbsp;passengers&nbsp;will&nbsp;see&nbsp;some changes&nbsp;and&nbsp;it&#8217;s a good idea for&nbsp;people&nbsp;to check before they travel.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Mann,\u202fDirector\u202fof Industry Operations at Rail Delivery Group, said:\u202f&nbsp;\u201cWhile most services will continue to run as normal over Easter, some improvement works will\u202fmean changes\u202ffor customers on a small number of routes.\u202fWe\u2019re\u202fencouraging anyone travelling over the long weekend to\u202fplan ahead, allowing extra time for travel. Where essential improvement works are happening, train operators are working hard to minimise disruption.\u202f \u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVisual Disruption\u202fMap videos will be available online and at some stations to help passengers navigate planned and unplanned service changes. Our colleagues across the railway will be working tirelessly to keep passengers moving, and we ask everyone to treat them with kindness and respect, as they help deliver a safe and reliable service.\u201d\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Works taking place this Easter include&nbsp;three projects on the West Coast Main Line:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>London Euston and Milton Keynes:<\/strong>&nbsp;As above, from Friday 3 to Wednesday 8&nbsp;April,&nbsp;&nbsp;no&nbsp;intercity&nbsp;trains&nbsp;will run&nbsp;between London Euston and Milton Keynes. Services will start and end at Milton Keynes&nbsp;with buses to Bedford&nbsp;for onwards trains to&nbsp;London St Pancras International&nbsp;(Bakerloo&nbsp;Line&nbsp;and Overground trains&nbsp;will run&nbsp;between Euston and&nbsp;Harrow\/Watford every day except Saturday and Sunday).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preston to Carlisle<\/strong>: On Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 April,&nbsp;installation of new signals and power&nbsp;supply&nbsp;equipment&nbsp;means&nbsp;there will be no trains between Preston and Lancaster. Avanti West Coast will&nbsp;operate&nbsp;a&nbsp;special&nbsp;Preston to Carlisle&nbsp;train service&nbsp;via the Settle &amp; Carlisle line, while TransPennine Express and Northern services will&nbsp;terminate&nbsp;at Preston,&nbsp;Oxenholme&nbsp;or Grange-over-Sands.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Carlisle to Glasgow Central\/Edinburgh,&nbsp;Scotland:&nbsp;<\/strong>New track and points&nbsp;being installed on the West Coast Main Line&nbsp;in&nbsp;south Glasgow<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>means that Anglo Scottish&nbsp;passengers&nbsp;will be diverted via Dumfries and Kilmarnock.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Work elsewhere on the network includes:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>London Waterloo&nbsp;to Clapham Junction and around&nbsp;Winchester:<\/strong>&nbsp;From Friday 3 to Monday 6 April&nbsp;the&nbsp;renewal of switches and crossings (moveable sections of track that guide trains from one track to another) and structural repairs will mean reduced services between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction, while track improvements&nbsp;in Hampshire&nbsp;will mean buses replace trains between&nbsp;Winchester and Southampton over all four days of the bank holiday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Margate:<\/strong>&nbsp;From Friday 3 to Monday 6 April,&nbsp;the installation of new tracks through Margate station will mean buses replace trains between Herne Bay and Ramsgate&nbsp;via Broadstairs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For full details of engineering work taking place this Easter,&nbsp;passengers are advised to&nbsp;check their journeys with their train operator or via National Rail Enquiries before travelling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Image credit: Network Rail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/railuk.com\/travel\/britains-rail-network-open-for-business-this-easter-but-passengers-asked-to-check-before-they-travel-on-some-key-routes\/\" title=\"Britain\u2019s rail network open for business this Easter \u2013 but passengers asked to check before they travel on some key routes\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"485\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.railuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/31095654\/Switches-and-crossings-general-picture_cropped-1-485x360.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"><\/a>The\u00a0vast\u00a0majority of\u00a0Britain\u2019s\u00a0rail network will be open for passengers travelling over the Easter bank holiday\u00a0weekend, helping\u00a0them\u00a0make the most of\u00a0their\u00a0spring break.\u00a0 Thanks to\u00a0our\u00a0carefully-planned \u00a375.5m\u00a0 programme of investment\u00a0this Easter,\u00a0aimed at\u00a0improving performance for both passengers and freight services, we are ensuring most services run as normal.\u00a0 This Easter\u2019s\u00a0biggest\u00a0upgrade is\u00a0part of\u00a0a\u00a0\u00a3400m\u00a0project\u00a0to boost\u00a0the reliability of\u00a0the West Coast Main Line\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Europe\u2019s busiest mixed-use [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16013,16017,47,16016,913,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-industry-news","category-rail-news","category-train-operating-companies","category-travel","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397186,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397185\/revisions\/397186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}