Maintenance work to impact North East trains along key route over May bank holidays
Trains along the East Coast Main Line are expected to be impacted by rail work across key dates in May.
Network Rail has announced services on May bank holidays will be impacted by maintenence work.
This will hit anyone in the North East hoping to travel along the key Edinburgh to London line.
Network Rail will carry out a package of major improvement work on the line between York and Northallerton.
It will impact both LNER services travelling through Newcastle as well as Grand Central trains in Sunderland.
Lumo and Transpennine trains will also see disruption.
This engineering work will take place over six days in May, marking both the month’s bank holiday weekends.
Services from Saturday, May 2 until Monday, May 4 and Saturday, May 23 until Monday, May 25 will be impacted.
‘Trains will be more reliable in the long term’
A spokesperson for the train operating companies said: “We’re working closely with Network Rail to keep passengers moving while this important work takes place.
“Although journeys will take longer and involve rail replacement coaches or buses on some routes, these upgrades will mean more reliable services in the long term. We’re asking customers to plan ahead, check before travelling and allow extra time for their journeys.”
Services across the North East are cancelled
LNER has confirmed trains to and from the south will start and terminate at York, with trains to and from the north starting or terminating at Darlington or Northallerton.
The company has confirmed rail replacement services will be in place between York, Northallerton and Darlington to assist with connections.
A reduced and amended Lumo service will run between Newcastle and its Scottish destinations. No trains will head south of Newcastle.
Grand Central trains will only run trains between London and Yorkshire on the impacted line, leaving out Sunderland.
Transpennine customers are advised no trains between York and Northallerton will run, with replacement buses running between York and Darlington on the line.
John Grainger, Joint Head of Performance East Coast Partnership for LNER and Network Rail added: “Unfortunately this will be a disruptive piece of work for LNER customers and others - Network rail colleagues will be completely renewing a junction on the route to improve reliability, particularly in hot weather, but to also bring a smoother ride at this location too.”