Easter rail disruption on journeys between London Euston and Milton Keynes

Passengers are being urged to check before they travel

Author: Callum McIntyrePublished 13 hours ago

Thousands of Easter train journeys are disrupted from today due to a six-day shutdown on the West Coast Main Line (WCML).

Engineering work means no services are running between London Euston and Milton Keynes from today (Good Friday) to Wednesday April 8.

Trains are set to resume on Thursday April 9.

The work is part of a £400 million project to boost the reliability of the WCML, which is Europe's busiest railway line used for passenger and freight trains.

A bridge in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, will be given extra protection to prevent future damage.

In north-west London, new track will be laid at Willesden while Harrow and Wealdstone station will see repairs and upgrades

Jake Kelly, Network Rail's regional director for the North West and Central region, said: "We know how important bank holidays are - particularly at Easter, when families and friends come together - and that's why we work hard to keep as much of the network

open as possible while carrying out these vital upgrades.

"However, bank holidays are also among the least busy times on the railway, and the four-day period at Easter gives us a valuable opportunity to complete projects that simply can't be delivered during a normal weekend.

"This ensures we maximise the time our teams are out working on the tracks.

"So passengers will see some changes and it's a good idea for people to check before they travel."

Elsewhere on Britain's rail network, engineers will deliver more than 270 other upgrade projects over the Easter period.

There will be no WCML services between Preston and Lancaster on Saturday April 4 or the following day, Easter Sunday.

Avanti West Coast will run services between Preston and Carlisle via the Settle and Carlisle line.

Anglo-Scottish services will be diverted via Dumfries and Kilmarnock between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Over the same period, services between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction will be reduced, and there will be no trains between Winchester and Southampton in Hampshire, or between Herne Bay and Ramsgate in Kent.

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