London Euston will be closed over the Easter Bank Holiday for essential railway improvements.
Services will start and finish at Milton Keynes Central between 15th and 18th April.
Network Rail is investing millions of pounds upgrading sections of track in Watford to improve future journeys on one of Europe’s busiest mixed-use passenger and freight rail routes.
The projects can only be done during a full closure of the railway, with bank holidays being the least disruptive time to do them.
The improvements taking place include:
- 1km of new track installed
- 5,000 tonnes of new railway foundation stone (ballast) laid
- 4,400 of spoil removed
- 7,000 worker hours over 14 shifts
- 10 engineering trains
- 2 rail mounted cranes to lift in the new track sections
- 8 rail mounted excavators to move stone and spoil
Once complete, the railway renewals will increase the number of trains which can pass through the key junction, meaning fewer delays and faster journeys for passengers and freight in future.
As well as the track improvements, engineers are making the most of the full railway closure to carry out a wide range of other work, including drainage, fencing, station maintenance and bridge surveys.
Network Rail is advising people to ‘travel either side’ of the bank holiday to avoid disruption caused by the must-do work.
The essential upgrades mean no trains will serve London Euston between 15th – 18th April (Good Friday to Easter Monday).
Services will start and finish at Milton Keynes instead.
Passengers needing to travel on the days in between could have longer journeys, fewer available seats, and may need to use rail replacement buses.
James Dean, Network Rail’s West Coast South route director, said: “There is never an ideal time to shut the railway and we have to carefully balance the best time to do this essential work with the needs of our passengers. Long bank holiday weekends continue to give our engineers the time they need to close the railway for complex jobs like track replacements and bridge overhauls while disrupting the fewest passengers.
“Our advice this Easter is to travel either side of the bank holiday weekend and to plan ahead by checking National Rail Enquiries to see how your journey could be impacted by our essential upgrades to improve the railway for the future.”
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