Euston station to shut again this bank holiday weekend

‘We highly recommend that you avoid travelling on these dates unless you absolutely have to,’ says Virgin Trains

After the four-day Easter shutdown of the UK’s fifth-busiest railway station, train travellers will find London Euston closed once again over the coming bank holiday weekend.

On 4, 5 and 6 May, no long-distance trains will run to and from Birmingham, Manchester, North Wales and Scotland on the West Coast main line.

In addition, several other projects on the rail spine are taking place.

The operator, Virgin Trains, is warning passengers: “We highly recommend that you avoid travelling on these dates unless you absolutely have to.

“If you do choose to travel then, make sure you plan carefully and give yourself more time to get to where you need to be.”

Services will be starting and ending at Milton Keynes Central, but frequencies will be sharply reduced – with only one train per hour to Manchester, rather than three.

Over the weekend buses will replace trains on several other sections of the West Coast main line from Crewe to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

For travellers between London and the West Midlands, the recommended route over the bank holiday is on Chiltern from Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street, which is a 10-minute walk from the city’s main New Street station.

Travellers to and from Manchester and Liverpool can take this route and transfer to other services from New Street.

Alternatively, passengers for Manchester and Carlisle can travel on LNER from London King’s Cross and change at Leeds.

East Coast main line services operated by LNER are also the best options for Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Over Easter, however, many passengers complained about severe overcrowding on East Coast trains.

The East Midlands line from London St Pancras to Sheffield will be disrupted in the capital and between Derby and Chesterfield.

Network Rail says: “The railway is up to 50 per cent quieter than usual over bank holidays so doing work at this time of year minimises our impact on passengers who, as research shows, understand the need for such activity.”

London Fenchurch Street will also be closed for the weekend, with services to and from south Essex diverted to Liverpool Street.

Work to replace track between Farringdon and West Hampstead in London will close the north-south Thameslink line through the capital, though curtailed services will still run to Gatwick and Luton airports.

Through the weekend many rail links will be replaced by buses, including Shenfield to Southend, Manchester to Chester and Barnsley to Huddersfield.

In Scotland, 4 May marks the start of large-scale work on the line between Aberdeen and Inverness, with disruption continuing until late August.