Rail passengers face eight days of disruption in early May as long-planned engineering work by Network Rail over the bank holiday weekend merges into the next round of industrial action by train drivers.
Key stretches of track will be closed from late Friday evening, 3 May, through to the start of service on Tuesday morning, 7 May. Network Rail says it will have 487 projects in operation over the weekend.
Network Rail’s system operator director, Anit Chandarana, 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 railway in the world – the West Coast Main Line – along with work to replace worn out equipment at junctions at Crewe. We’ve also got more work to build a new station at Cambridge South.”
On Tuesday 7 May, a three-day succession of “rolling” strikes by train drivers belonging to the Aslef union in a long and bitter dispute over pay and working arrangements will have begun.
A six-day overtime ban by train drivers, running from 6 to 11 May, will cause many hundreds of further cancellations.
These are the key questions and answers.
The most disruptive rail projects?
Once again, the most serious effects of engineering work will be felt by passengers hoping to use the West Coast Main Line, which connects London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and southern Scotland.
The main London-Birmingham line will be severed between Rugby and Birmingham International due to track renewal work – disrupting Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Railway and London North Western Railway services. The work will also affect the CrossCountry line from Leamington Spa to Coventry, but an alternative route via Solihull is available.
Many other projects on the line mean a much-reduced service on the intercity operator Avanti West Coast, with most journeys taking significantly longer due to diversionary routes.
The line between Euston and Milton Keynes Central will be closed completely on Sunday 5 May. On the same day, no trains will run between Glasgow and anywhere in England “owing to improvement work on the West Coast Main Line at Crewe, Wigan and other locations”.
Where else?
Work on a new station, Cambridge South, requires bus replacement services between Royston and Cambridge on Great Northern. In addition, the Stansted airport-Cambridge link will be suspended.
On the Southeastern network in Kent and Sussex, widespread work will be carried out on a wide range of lines.
The Dover-Folkestone link is also running at reduced speed.
What about the industrial action?
Members of the Aslef union start an overtime ban on bank holiday Monday, 6 May, for six days. The action is in furtherance of a dispute with the 14 rail firms in England that are controlled by the UK government and represented by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG). As many rail firms depend on drivers working overtime, hundreds – possibly thousands – of trains will be cancelled.
Strikes by train drivers aim to halt thousands of trains on 7, 8 and 9 May 2024, with commuters who normally go to the office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday among the targets.
The aim is to cause maximum disruption for minimum loss of pay.
Tuesday 7 May – strike on London commuter operators
Operators will run skeleton services as follows: Greater Anglia will run to and from London Liverpool Street to Stansted airport, Southend, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich.
Southern will run a shuttle service between London Victoria and Gatwick airport.
Thameslink will run a shuttle service between London St Pancras and Luton (town and airport stations).
Great Northern will run a shuttle service between London King’s Cross and Cambridge.
South Western Railway will run between London Waterloo, Woking and Guildford, with some other suburban services likely.
Southeastern urges passengers not to travel, but is likely to run services between London St Pancras and Ashford on the high-speed line; Charing Cross and Orpington; and London Bridge and Dartford.
C2C will cancel all services.
Wednesday 8 May – strike on many intercity operators
Five train operators – Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Railway and CrossCountry – are likely to cancel all train services.
GWR will run no long-distance trains, but will run some local services
Thursday 9 May – strike in northern England and East Coast Main Line
Northern and TransPennine Express will cancel all services. LNER will run a skeleton service on core lines between around 7am and 7pm. Its main Edinburgh-Newcastle-York-London line will have at least one train an hour, with some additional trains on the southern part of the network.
And there’s more trouble to come later in the month?
Yes. More train drivers’ strikes are probably unlikely until June, but the late May bank holiday (25-27 May) will see widespread disruption – once again on the West Coast Main Line, specifically on the Crewe-Carlisle and Carstairs-Lanark stretches, as well as on the Greater Anglia network.