May Day rail services disrupted - bosses say it's '˜good news for passengers'

TransPennine Express services face disruption over the May Day weekend

RAIL passengers using face disruption over the May Day bank weekend due to engineering work - even though Network Rail is claiming the holiday will be 'one of the lest disruptive ever'.

The long weekend will see trains run by Virgin, Great Western Railway and TransPennine Express affected.

Network Rail said £33 million of improvement work will be carried out over the weekend, when fewer than half the usual number of passengers are expected to travel.

Signalling work on the northern part of the Midland Main Line will mean major alterations to services, including replacement buses running between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield on May 1.

Buses will replace trains between Glasgow Central and various parts of north-west England from April 30 to May 2 due to work on the West Coast Main Line.

London Paddington will see reduced services over the weekend as Crossrail and electrification work continues.

No Gatwick Express services between the airport and London Victoria will operate during the bank holiday. Fast, direct services will run to and from London Bridge instead.

Network Rail chief executive, Mark Carne, claimed this was “good news for passengers”.

He said: “We’re continuing with our huge investment programme and we have a lot of work to do this weekend, but we’ve planned it as far as possible to minimise disruption.

“Over 11,000 members of the railway’s orange army will be out working this bank holiday to build a bigger, better railway as part of our £40 billion railway upgrade plan all aimed at providing better, more reliable journeys for passengers and businesses across Britain.”

Network Rail has been heavily cricised in the past for mismanaging holiday works. At the start of 2015, overrunning “improvements” led to major delays for thousands of passengers.