Euston May Bank Holiday Closure

Living Magazines Euston Station

Time-lapse footage showing recent improvements at Euston has been released ahead of a further full station closure for the May bank holiday, from 4-6 May 2019.

Euston will be closed between 4-6 May at the same time as other major work takes place up and down the West Coast main line, as part of Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan.

Passengers are being advised to check the best days to travel and plan their journeys at www.nationalrail.co.uk.

As well as Euston station being closed to main line train services to prepare for Britain’s new high-speed railway, HS2, sections of the West Coast main line will be closed between Euston and Milton Keynes, and Crewe and Cumbria.

The best time to travel will be on days before and after the early May bank holiday weekend.

Where the line is open customers will have longer journeys, fewer available seats, and may need to use rail replacement buses.

Network Rail has been running a marketing campaign since early February warning train customers of the impacts of Railway Upgrade Plan work over the Easter and two May bank holidays.

Martin Frobisher, managing director of Network Rail’s London North Western route, said: ‘We recognise there is never an ideal time to shut the railway for our must-do work. Bank holidays are the least disruptive time to do it, when fewer passengers use the railway compared to the working week. That way we can do the maximum amount of work while impacting the fewest number of people. Sometimes a closure is the only way we can carry out major work like replacing track or the improvements at Euston station.

‘Train companies and Network Rail have worked together to minimise disruption for customers by doing a lot of work over the Easter and early May bank holidays. The alternative would have been closing the line and Euston station over multiple weekends throughout the summer.’

Robert Nisbet, regional director for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the railway, said: ‘This vital engineering work is part of the rail industry’s plan to add more services, improve punctuality and make journeys better and as fewer people travel on bank holidays than on a normal weekday, we’re keeping disruption to a minimum. We encourage people who are planning to take the train over the May bank holidays to check before they travel by visiting nationalrail.co.uk or speaking to their train operator.’

Peter Broadley, executive director for customer, operations and safety at Virgin Trains, said: ‘With no services into or out of Euston we strongly advise our customers to avoid travelling to and from London on the days affected. We know this will impact on people’s travel plans, but with the removal of the Friday peak restrictions from London, customers who are able to do so can make an earlier start to the weekend.’

Significant planned upgrades will also take place on the railway over the Whitsun bank holiday weekend between 25-27 May.