Rail passengers face disruption across the first weekend of November as two key stretches of intercity line are closed for engineering work.
The East Coast Main Line will be closed in Yorkshire between Doncaster and Northallerton on Saturday and Sunday, 1 and 2 November. It will disrupt the UK’s flagship route, which connects London King’s Cross with Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland. The 62-mile stretch of line that would normally carry thousands of passengers every hour.
The only trains to and from York station will serve Scarborough.
LNER, the main train operator, will run from London to Doncaster and from Northallerton to Newcastle, Edinburgh and northern Scotland.
Passengers face a two-hour rail-replacement bus journey from Doncaster to Darlington – extending the London-Edinburgh trip to six hours.
Passengers on CrossCountry and TransPennine Express trains will also be affected.
Two “open-access” operators will curtail their services. Grand Central will run no trains between London King’s Cross and Sunderland, while Lumo will have a reduced service running only between Newcastle and Edinburgh.
In the West Midlands, all lines through Coventry will be closed on Saturday and Sunday, 1-2 November, hitting intercity links between London, Birmingham, northwest England and Scotland.
No trains will run between Rugby and Birmingham International, with rail replacement buses in place instead for Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway passengers. The fastest journey time between London Euston and Coventry will nearly double from 54 to 102 minutes.
Anglo-Scottish trains from London via the West Midlands will start and end at Birmingham International.
Some London to Manchester trains via the faster Trent Valley line will face extended journey times due to additional stops at Watford Junction and Rugby.
A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “There is never a good time to close parts of the rail network, but maintaining and upgrading the railway is vital to ensure its safe operation for the millions of people who use it every day.
“Unlike strike action, the vast majority of work is planned months and often years in advance so that disruption is kept to a minimum; cancelling engineering work at short notice would cost millions.
“We acknowledge that some journeys will be affected, and, as ever, we would remind rail passengers to check before they travel.”
A strike planned for 1 November by members of the RMT union working for CrossCountry has been called off, but services will remain disrupted because both sets of engineering work will affect the rail firm’s operations.
National Rail is telling passengers online: “A normal timetable has been reinstated for this date, and a full CrossCountry service will operate, though planned engineering work will mean changes to some journeys.”
The line between Peterborough, Ely and Cambridge North is also closed for the weekend for Network Rail work, affecting trains serving Stansted airport from the Midlands.
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