03 May 2024 , 13:54
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Rail passengers are set to face eight days of travel turmoil as a combination of bank holiday engineering works and fresh industrial action by train drivers throws plans into disarray.
Network Rail has announced it will be pressing ahead with 487 planned projects from Saturday through to Monday, causing significant upheaval for travellers. The most substantial impact is expected on Sunday when services between London Euston and Milton Keynes, as well as those connecting Glasgow with England, will grind to a halt due to major works on the West Coast Main Line at various locations including Crewe and Wigan.
Additional disruptions are anticipated in areas such as Cambridge, Coventry, and Liverpool throughout the bank holiday weekend. Anit Chandarana, Network Rail's system operator director, said: "The vast majority of the railway will be open for business as normal."
"We know people want to travel by train and not replacement bus, and we do our best to fit as much work as we can into these closures to minimise the impact on passengers and freight customers. The work this month will see new track laid on one of the busiest mixed-use railways in the world the West Coast Main Line along with work to replace worn-out equipment at junctions at Crewe."
Mr Chandarana added: "We've also got more work to build a new station at Cambridge South, which will play a key role in developing the city and its new biomedical campus in a sustainable way."
Workers 'may be handed more perks in bid to end crippling industrial action'
Train drivers who are members of the Aslef union at 16 operators will initiate a six-day ban on overtime from Monday, which is predicted to result in short-notice cancellations. The union's members will also stage three one-day strikes across different operators between May 7 and 9, meaning some regions of the country will be without rail services on those days.
Aslef has been embroiled in a near two-year dispute over pay, with no discussions held for over a year. It was revealed on Thursday that the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators, has penned a letter to Aslef proposing informal talks which could lead to more formal negotiations.
In the meantime, motorists are being cautioned to brace themselves for lengthy delays as millions set off on bank holiday trips. The RAC has forecasted that 16 million motorists will embark on a leisure trip by car between Friday and Monday.
Transport analytics firm Inrix has warned that journeys on most major routes across the South and South West will take an average of 50% longer than usual on Friday afternoon. Areas of the North West, East Anglia and South West are likely to bear the brunt of traffic returning home on Monday.
Drivers hoping to dodge the worst congestion are being advised to travel before 9am or after 5pm throughout the bank holiday period. Aviation analytics company Cirium stated that Friday is the busiest day of the year so far for UK airports, with over 3,000 departures. A total of 8,486 flights are set to take off between Saturday and Monday, offering over 1.5 million seats.