Rail travellers warned of disruption over Easter weekend

Rail passengers have been advised to plan ahead for Easter, with engineering works expected to close the west coast mainline between some of Britain’s biggest cities.

No trains will run between London Euston and Milton Keynes throughout the four-day holiday weekend from Good Friday on 7 April until Easter Monday on 10 April, meaning replacement buses or alternative routes will be needed to travel between the capital and towns and cities including Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.

Avanti West Coast trains will go no farther north than Lancaster from 8-11 April, with track work farther up the line towards Carlisle halting trains to the Lakes and Glasgow.

Elsewhere, passengers will face disruption to services around the major rail interchange of Crewe, because of work for HS2. London’s Charing Cross and Victoria stations will also be largely out of action owing to engineering works, with some services cut and others diverted.

Network Rail, which manages Britain’s railway track and infrastructure, has told passengers to check before travel, but said 95% of the railway would be open.

More than 12,000 metres of new rail and 33,000 tonnes of ballast will be laid over the four days of the Easter weekend.

Andrew Haines, the Network Rail chief executive, said: “Our Easter engineering programme has been carefully planned so the majority of the rail network will remain open for business. Colleagues from Network Rail and our rail partners will be working hard to deliver £88m worth of investment during the course of the weekend. These vital projects will upgrade the railway so that we can provide a better and more reliable service for our passengers and freight users in the future.”

The RMT union has suspended rail strikes that could have disrupted the first weekend of most school holidays, scheduled for 30 March and 1 April.