With the late summer bank holiday just a month away, Network Rail has advised that most of Britain’s railway network will be running as normal.

Although most train services will run as normal over the August bank holiday weekend, passengers should still check whether their journeys will be affected by upgrade and engineering work.

Network Rail engineers will be working on more than 440 projects across Britain throughout the August bank holiday weekend in an investment of £84.3m that will improve train performance and provide more reliable services for passengers and freight.

The major locations that will be affected by disruption during the weekend include:

London King’s Cross:

• There will be no long-distance services from the early evening of Saturday, 24th August until early morning on Monday, 26th August so that work can continue with the East Coast Digital Programme between Biggleswade and Potters Bar.
• Work has been scheduled to avoid the busiest times of the weekend.
• Rail-replacement bus services will operate instead of train services.

London Euston:

• On Saturday, 24th and Sunday, 25th August there will be reduced services between Euston and Milton Keynes because of track renewals taking place at Primrose Hill to provide more reliable services.

Stoke-on-Trent:

• Services will be disrupted in the Stoke area between Saturday, 24th August and Tuesday, 27th August while switches and crossings are renewed.
• An amended train service will run between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly via Stafford, Crewe and Wilmslow.
• Rail-replacement bus services will operate instead of train services.

Anyone intending to travel during the bank holiday weekend should check and plan their journeys in advance at www.nationalrail.co.uk or with their train operator.

This year’s £84.3m investment compares favourably with the £15m of rail upgrades completed During August Bank Holiday last year in Cheshire, Derbyshire and London.

With the August bank holiday weekend approaching, we’ve carefully planned our engineering work to keep disruption to a minimum so people can rely on the railway to get them to events and destinations across the country.

There’s never a good time to do the work we need to do, but the bank holiday Monday gives us an opportunity when fewer people are travelling to complete major work we couldn’t do in a normal weekend.

Though the vast majority of the railway will be running as usual, disruption in some areas is unfortunately unavoidable, so I advise those planning to travel over the bank holiday weekend to check their journeys in advance.

Anit Chandarana, Network Rail’s system operator group director