Customers travelling along the East Midland Railway on the August Bank Holiday Weekend have been issued advice.
Upgrades are currently underway on the East Coast Main Line and, as a result, services will be busy.
Network Rail is carrying out the project as part of the East Coast Digital Programme, which will introduce in-cab signalling between London King’s Cross and Grantham.
Signalling information will be displayed directly to the driver in the cab and reduce the maintenance of line side signals.
This will reduce half of the signalling-related work in the future, helping to make journeys more reliable for customers.
Customers are likely going to have to travel to and from St Pancras instead of King’s Cross to travel on East Midlands services.
Due to this change, the operator is anticipating that services will be busier, especially for those travelling on East Midlands due to having flexible tickets.
Passengers should allow for extra time, expect queues and keep luggage to a minimum.
For those travelling partially with LNER or Great Northern can also use the rail replacement buses.
“We are looking forward to welcoming customers on board our services during the August Bank Holiday weekend.
“However, due to vital work that will bring important improvements to the East Coast Main Line, we are expecting our services to be busier than normal and that’s why we have issued some advice to help you make an informed choice so your journey is more comfortable.”
Philippa Cresswell, Customer Service Director at East Midlands Railway
Responses
Now we have dual powered trains I don’t suppose anybody thought that diverting long haul LNER trains to St Pancras would be a good idea, but that would mean no buses and passengers actually getting where they want to go with minimum fuss.
You could use the LNER trains on the west coast to supplement the Glasgow/Edinburgh services.
No trains today mate is not good enough
First you need the route knowledge, which I can’t imagine there being, though that could be fixable in the long term, the second thing you need is capacity, and the MML, and particularly St Pancras, simply doesn’t have it, something not readily fixable. Hull trains are diverting into St Pancras on the Sunday but other than then there just isn’t the capacity, St Pancras is only 4 relatively short platforms which can only take a 5 car 80X anyway (which is why the 810s are shorter).