Easter travel chaos looms for rail passengers as £70m upgrade works bring diversions and speed restrictions
RAILWAY passengers face chaos over the Easter weekend as some lines are closed and other routes hit with diversions and speed limits.
Services into London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow and Edinburgh will be hit by the disruption as engineers fix tracks and install new power lines.
Network Rail lined up the £70million upgrade works for the long weekend from Good Friday to Easter Monday (April 14-17) as fewer people travel.
But those heading to see family or away on holiday could face serious disruption, with trains to Heathrow and Gatwick airports also affected.
Many services across the country will be subject to diversions or speed limits and buses will replace trains on some routes.
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Engineers will carry out major works on the line from London Liverpool Street in preparation for Crossrail links - hitting Greater Anglia's services into Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, and the Stansted Express.
TfL Rail will not run any trains at all over the four days.
Other major projects include modernisation at Bath Spa station, the Ordsall Chord project on routes into Manchester, and Thameslink work on lines connecting London stations Charing Cross, Cannon Street and London Bridge.
Buses will replace trains into Bristol Temple Meads, and also on a number of lines in the West Midlands, affecting Birmingham New Street.
A reduced or amended timetable will operate on most South West Trains services into London Waterloo, and some services from London Euston to the Midlands.
Southeastern services in London and Kent and the TransPennine Express in the North of England also face disruption.
In Scotland, there will be no CrossCountry or Virgin Trains East Coast services between Edinburgh and Glasgow Central.
ScotRail will also be running bus replacement services, with many trains diverted.
Buses will also replace Virgin trains between Carlisle and Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Easter rail chaos: how your journey will be hit over the long Bank Holiday weekend
In and around London:
- London Cannon Street: There will be no Southeastern services arriving or departing on 14 and 15 April. On 16 and 17 April trains will start and terminate at New Cross
- London Charing Cross: There will be no Southeastern services arriving or departing on 14 and 15 April. A normal service will be in place on 16 April, and on 17 April there will be reduced services to London Bridge
- London Liverpool Street: Crossrail East work and overhead line renewal continues between Shenfield and London Liverpool Street which means that there will be no train services from 14-17 April between London Liverpool Street and Ingatestone/Billericay. Replacement bus services will be in place
- London Paddington: Reduced services to Heathrow Airport on 15 April. From 14-17 April, Bath Spa long-distance services between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington will be diverted, and will not stop at Bath Spa or Chippenham
- London Victoria: No Southern or Gatwick Express services on Sunday 16 April
- London Waterloo: Reduced and diverted services between 14-16 April
Outside London:
- Bristol Temple Meads: Buses will be in place between Bristol Temple Meads and Chippenham / Frome / Westbury / Castle Cary from 14-17 April
- Scotland: On 15 and 16 April, CrossCountry and Virgin Trains East Coast services will not run between Edinburgh and Glasgow Central, and Scotrail trains will be diverted between Motherwell and Glasgow Central. Bus services will be in place
Network Rail says some 13,000 workers will be deployed to carry out the vital works, part of an ongoing £50bn upgrade to Britain's creaking railway infrastructure.
But commuters will fear the disruption could last until after the Bank Holiday is the work overruns - as it has before.
Two years ago, late-running Christmas works in London left 115,000 people stuck on trains or queuing outside stations.
Similar incidents occurred last Christmas, with the delayed construction of a bridge causing major disruption around Rugby.
Phil Hufton, Netwrok Rail's managing director for England and Wales, said: "This will provide faster, better services in the long run and help relieve overcrowding.
"We know many people want to use the railway during the Easter holidays and the good news is that over 95 per cent of the network is unaffected by this work.
"But there will be some services that are impacted and so we strongly advise passengers to plan their journeys in advance."
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