If you are thinking of traveling by rail over the bank holiday weekend beware.
Network Rail will be carrying investment, upgrade and maintenance work from the last trains on Friday 1 May until the start of service on Tuesday 5 May.
Work will bring carried out on the West Coast route connecting Manchester with London and Scotland, with work on the northern end of the route track renewal work will take place in the Crewe, Warrington and Wigan area and track maintenance and improvements will also take place in the Carlisle area. This will affect passengers travelling on services to and from Scotland.
Work will also take place in the Stafford area as part of a £250m investment to improve capacity, reliability and journey times on the West Coast main line. New track will be laid and signalling gantries built in the station area and new overhead line equipment installed near Norton Bridge.
New track will also be installed on the line between Norton Bridge and Stone. The work will affect passengers on services between Birmingham and Liverpool and Birmingham and Manchester. At certain times long distance services will be diverted via Manchester.
The railway between Bolton and Manchester will also be closed over the weekend and will reopen on the Tuesday morning with a reduced service during the week and bus replacement services during weekends until October 2015.
The work is connected to the planned upgrade of the Farnworth Tunnel which is being enlarged as part of the electrification programme in the north west of England.
Passengers traveling on Arriva services on the Bank Holiday Monday between Manchester Piccadilly and shrewsbury will be diverted to run via Chester and Warrington Bank Quay.
